2nd Installment- Road Trippin with McCool

This Stop – Trader Bob’s Tattoo / St. Louis, MO
With our host;  “All American” Matt Hodel

story & photos by Scott McCool

In our Last road trippin installment, I was visiting with Billy Jack and his Guys in Bowling Green, KY and just  before I left, Billy thought it would be a good idea for his apprentice to ride along with me, so, Dustin aka Lil D, Jumped in to help me drive and to learn some tattoo history on the trip. Dustin is a young artist, hungry to learn all he can about the business and to meet other artists. This trip is a great opportunity for him to do that.

We headed off the St Louis to see “All American” Matt Hodel, I met Matt in cocoa beach at the Space Coast Tattoo Convention. We hung out at Ed Madigan’s house after the show for a few days. Matt is a cool guy and funny as hell. We went swimming at Ed’s and Matt didn’t have a bathing suit, so he went to Wall-Mart and bought a women’s one piece, and he wore that. Funny ass shit, I wish I had a picture…maybe not…anyway.

He works at the one of the oldest tattoo shops in America, Trader Bobs Tattoo in St. Louis, MO The shop has been in constant operation since the 30s, it only moved one time do to the fact the building they were in was tore down to make room for a highway.

The Shop is currently owned by Nate and Allen of All Star Tattoo; they acquired the shop from Honest Mitch’s son Mike who tried to run the shop for a few years after his father died. After awhile he realized he needed some help and asked old friends Allen and Nate if they would consider buying the shop. And the rest is history as they say.

We spent a few days with Matt, he took us to a few other shops and we met some of his friends. We also went fishing at a secret spot he knows, He set up a trip with the Artists he works with. Everyone caught fish, I mean big fish. Except for Matt for some reason. Little D caught the most, and he has never fished before. We shot footage of that, and did some interviewing right there on the bank of the pond. Just like ESPN.

Dustin wanted to tattoo someone on this trip, so Matt hooked him up; he got to do a Hooker and a Pimp. Trader Bob’s is located in the ghetto of St. Louis. The street in front is pretty crazy at night. I would suggest a daytime appointment. It’s safe enough though, who wants to fuck with a tattoo shop full of big dudes? Not Me. The Artists are friendly enough with the neighborhood folks and they seem to watch out for the shop out of respect. Bars on the windows and a security system don’t hurt either.

Matt broke the rules and showed us the secret room where all the old flash from the 20’s and 30’s is stashed. The security is really tight to get in there. We had to go through a couple of booby traps and lots of dark hallways to get to the dungeon were all the gems are kept.

There were 1000’s of acetate stencils made in the 20’s there, hand painted signs, original drawings by guys back in the 30’s, even an old machine rack and power supply that I believe Moses used to tattoo Jesus with.

There is some of the coolest old school flash I’ve ever seen. They have enough stuff to start a museum.

The walls of the shop are also covered with original hand painted flash, most of it has never been reproduced, and it only exists at Trader Bobs.

All the artists that work there feels a sense of pride in their shop, they have a responsibility to protect and to preserve the history that they have acquired. They feel they have an obligation to the artists that came before them to carry on the traditions of the oldest shop in America.

All the artists at Trader Bobs are fantastic people and excellent artists; they have fun but also are very professional with the customers.

Nate and Allen are the best guys to take over the legacy; they have a huge respect for the history as well. They own 2 shops now, but rarely come to Trader Bob’s, due to the fact that Matt Hodel and the other guys have got it together. They come by and bring food, beer and supplies for the shop; they provide everything the artist’s need. They want all the artists to have what they need and they try to make life a little easier so they will stay, instead of opening a shop next door. They pretty much they let the artists that work there handle everything themselves.

He took us to meet some friends of his who have a shop, Ink Well Tattoo. The Owners are Clark Medley and Don Wills. When we got there we just bum rushed them with the camera and started to interview them before they new what was going on, Matt thought it would be the best way to do it, since he new them well enough.

Clark was working on this huge Japanese rib piece, he talked with us on camera while he tattooed. Then we talked with the other artists there. They even bought some of my videos. Thanks guys! Don Will wasn’t there at the time, so we decided to go to his house later in the evening.

We went to All-Star Tattoo to visit with Nate and Allen and meet their other artists.

I filmed Matt-interviewing the owners, Allen talked with us while he was tattooing. Telling us how he got to St. Louis and his about his influences in tattooing.

We met another one of their artists, Carrie who has been tattooing for 7 years. She says, “There’s not too much of the ass grabbing going on here, I like that. People come here for the artwork and our friendly attitude. We all have enough business to go around, sometimes we will pass on a tattoo to the right artist for the job, and it’s about the art aspect not so much the money. I love what I do everyday.” When you’re not working, what do you do? “I have 2 dogs a garden and I like to drink once in awhile. Life is good.”

We also talked with Shawn Garrison used to work at Trader Bob’s he says it was a rough place back in the day, he had some stories about the old owner, Mitch, he says, “Mitch was a intimidating guy. I worked there for 2 weeks before I even seen him. He taught me 2 things, one, was never get your hands tattooed, which I did anyway and two, how to tattoo a penis.” See and hear the whole story in a future video coming soon.

I took some photos of the shop, said good-bye and we skipped out to go meet to Don Will. Don is a collector of tattoo stuff; he has hundreds of tattoo machines and tons of old flash and paintings to see. He has a beautiful home and art studio and lives in basically a tattoo museum. He showed us tons of old Machines and told us stories about each one.

We had a great time visiting with Don. The video tour of his house is amazing.

I hated to leave St. Louis we were having such a good time with Matt.

Matt made a few suggestions of where we might go next. So Dustin and I headed north toward Chicago. Our next stop, Nick Wiggins of  Mark of Cain Tattoo.

More about that in the next installment of Road Trippin with McCool

So much to see and do in St. Louis that I’ll have to go back soon.

The Old Timers Convention will be held there, I know I’ll be back for that!

Hopefully I’ll have the St. Louis DVD available at that show.

For more info: www.artintensitynetwork.com

Trader Bob’s Tattoo
2529 south Jefferson, St. Louis, MO 63104

314.776.2307

Tattoo Artists;

All American Matt Hodel

Ahmed Eldarrat

Rob Geisinger

Joe Alhoff

John Bell – Piercer

All-Star Tattoo
8601 Olive Blvd
St Louis, MO 63132-2503
(314) 692-7827

www.allstartat2.com

Tattoo Artists;

Nate Strautkalns

Allen Thompson

Carrie Davini

Shawn Garrison

Omar Mahmud

Jeremy Buschmann

Stacey Glass – counter girl

Jason Stubblefield -piercer

Inkwell Tattoo
10227 Lincoln Trl. #8

Fairview Heights, Ill

618-398-1427

Tattoo Artists;

Don Will

Clark Medley

Brad Humes

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