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– Photos and story by Scott McCool / art intensity network  It all started at a convention, I was talking with different artists from all parts of the country and they all wanted me to visit them and see their shops. Planning the trip took longer than I thought, trying to maximize your time in as few a days as possible became a pain, and I kept scratching out my calendar, and starting over. Things kept changing the route. One guy could do it this time and another couldn’t and they are 600 miles apart. I eventually figured out a basic route which would keep me out filming on the road for 40 consecutive days. About 30 shops and two conventions worth. I loaded up on DVD’s and hit the road. I started out from my home in Northern Virginia on April 26th, my first stop was Bowling Green Kentucky. It was about a 9-hour stretch of driving without stopping. You may say what the hell is he going to Kentucky for. Well, Artistic Encounter Tattoo in Bowling Green is the home of Billy Jack Gunter. We met at the New Orleans show in 2004. We hit it off good. Then he came to the cocoa beach show and helped me there, so I promised him I would come see his shops some day.
I got to town and went straight to the hotel to relax awhile.
Later, Billy and one of his artists, Big Mixx came to pick me up for dinner. He took care of everything, we went to a Japanese steakhouse where the cooks all have tattoos by Billy Jack, so the service and the food was excellent. They took good care of us.
 After dinner we went to a club, everyone there new Billy too. Billy Jack owns three shops in Kentucky and is currently opening another one in Dallas Texas. He is a young tattooer, and is driven to succeed in this game. His artists are all top-notch and have good attitudes. They sit around and draw all the time; it makes for a good creative environment to work in. We went to all 3 of his shops; each one has a manager / partner working there and multiple artists and piercers.
Artistic encounter #1 located at
1407 us 31 w. By-pass Bowling Green, KY 42101 – 270-783-8697
Clint Minnich is the manager and of the shop and also tattoos. The other artists are, Lil D, who has a thing for graffiti art and is a natural at lettering and Shelbo who does nice color work. And Jonnie 2tone is the shop piercer.
Artistic encounter #2 - is located at: 2052 Russellville rd. Bowling green, KY – 270-746-9856
 Wes carter manages this shop and is an excellent tattooer. Brad Ausbrooks and doughboy are 2 other artists that work there. Artistic encounter #3 - is located at: 2nd street / downtown - Owensboro, KY – 270-685-5805 Big Mixx is the manager there along with Don Juan Demarko they take care of the tattooing and Rachael and Ivan handle the piercing. He also took me to meet his mentors, at dancing dragon tattoo, James Phillips & Chris Pavelch. Billy says he owes it all to both James and Chris for bringing him into the business and teaching him at the beginning and guiding him along throughout his career. James and Chris have a clean shop with lots of flash on the walls. They are located near a military base, so they stay pretty busy. He told me some stories about Billy as you can well imagine. Billy sneered and made faces at some of the shit James was saying. But it was all in fun. James seems to be real proud of Billy Jack and pleased with how far he has come so far.
 We left dancing dragon and headed back to bowling green. That evening 2 of the lead singers of the group, nappy roots came in to get work done by Billy Jack. They also live in the bowling green area. They were getting ready to go out on tour, and needed their tattoos worked on first.
Skinny Deville got some tree roots on his shoulder and down his arm and big V. got a needle shooting the words “game” into his veins.
I filmed the process and interaction with the nappy roots guys, they were very cool; Big V even took Billy and I out to dinner after the job was done. He’s a wild dude, down to earth in a lot of ways, but road smart for sure. We had a good time with big v.
Then, Billy and I went to the recording studio and met up with skinny d and their engineer Joel, they were previewing some of the new nappy roots music.
Needless to say, I left with 6 new unreleased tracks. It’s some good shit; it’s in my CD player right now!
When I left bowling green I had a little extra baggage. Billy Jack thought it would be good for his apprentice, Dustin aka Lil’ D to ride along with me, to learn more about the tattoo industry and meet other artists, and maybe get to tattoo someone. Or at least help me drive.
I said ok, and we were off to St. Louis…. With Little D.
Billy Jack is currently in Dallas building the new artistic encounter shop #4.
Located at: 3920 Rosemead Pkwy in Dallas, TX
Tattooing along with Billy Jack, will be, West Middleton
The shop piercer will be Zach
Opening soon - Aug 1st 2005
You will see all the craziness, cool tattoos and hear the new nappy roots music in the art intensity network tattoo DVD series - real soon.
Check out the website at: www.artintensitynetwork.com
For more about Billy Jack
Check out his website
www.aetattoo.com
The next road trippin installment
- trader bob’s tattoo - St. Louis, MO
- one of the oldest street shops in the US, in constant operation since 1928.
- home of tattoo artist “all american matt” hodel
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Scott McCool
executive director
west street entertainment
540.539.6829 / cell
dmccool@visuallink.com
www.weststreetnewz.com
Art intensity network
tattoo art DVD magazine
www.artintensitynetwork.com |
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