The Sydenham Current sat down for an interview with Keith Smith and Neil Malcolm of Madness Ink in Chatham.
The two artists shared with us how they got into tattooing and how they ended up at their prime time location in Chatham.
SC: How did you get involved with tattooing?
Keith: About 15 years ago, I started tattooing. I was always drawing tattoos, I have always been good in art. Drawing tattoos for friends, they all went to this one guy in his house. He came up to me one day, really loved my drawings. He said it’s really easy to tattoo, why don’t you give it a try? He taught me the ins and outs, the basics of it. So I worked out of my house for quite a few years. Then Mark Herbert opened up Hardcore By Madness over on Queen Street in Chatham. I was driving by with my wife and said I’m going to go in and talk to this guy.
He loved the idea of having a second artist, he loved my attitude. So I met up with him and his wife, and brought my portfolio in for him to see. He flipped through about five pages, looks at me and says ‘Dude, your stuff is s***.” So instead of firing back at him, I said well what can I do to get better?
That impressed him to the point that he was willing to bring me into his shop, teach me some finer details into the whole aspect of the art.
I was at Hardcore By Madness with Mark for about a year and a half. Mark had a bad accident and passed away unfortunately. We kept his shop rocking for about two more months and just decided it was too much for everybody to handle. We closed it down. I went to work at another shop in town that Mark’s apprentice opened up called the Professional Skin Gallery, it was around for about a year, just wasn’t busy enough, bad location.
From there I worked at Hardcore in London for about two years, just on the weekends. Had a full time job at Navistar for a while too. Down there I worked with an awesome artist, really hit it off with him, he really taught me a lot about how he does stuff, how he looks at stuff. That brought me up to another level I found.
Going back to Mark, a couple weeks before he passed away, we had talked about opening up a second shop down in Windsor. I would run the Chatham one, and he would go down and run the Windsor one. That one would be called Madness Ink.
So when I decided I was going to be opening up a shop… it had to be called that.
We’ve been here for about four and a half years now. It has been going good. We had different guest artists in every once in a while. The first year we were open we had MoFo from First Family Tattoos in St. Thomas in for a week.
It took a few years for Madness Ink’s name to get out there and be known as a quality shop. About a year ago, Neil came here. He said it was good for him, but it was good for me too. Really pushed me to get better.
SC: What is your specialty?
Keith: The thing with having a tattoo shop in Chatham, you can’t really pigeon toe yourself into being good at only one thing, you need to be versatile to a point where you can do quite a few things. For me, I’ll tattoo anything… tribal, butterflies, fairies, pixies, whatever you want.
The things I love doing is when someone walks in the door with a duotang with a few images of what they like, just gives it to me and says I don’t care how long it takes you to get it ready, I want this to be a sleeve, do your best. In a couple weeks I can fire off an amazing picture, I will try a few times to get it, but it will just click at one point and it will be bang, there it is epic. When you get to put that to skin and make it a reality it’s phenomenal to watch it happen. Personally I like fine, small detail, in a larger piece. If it’s a machine you’re going to see each individual rivet spot, the shininess on the panels.
SC: When did you get involved with tattooing, Neil?
Neil: I’ve always been interested in tattoos. I’ve liked full sleeves, before it got really popular. I think in the last 10 years it has really jumped and really gotten popular among everyday people, and not just bikers and people like that. I associate that with a lot of these TV shows, Miami Ink, LA Ink. They’ve given a good look at why people get tattoos, and it is not just about being hard.
I was living in West Lorne and my roommate said there was a tattoo supply shop nearby. I’ve always been interested in art… drawn, sculpted, my dad was a good artist, his mom was a good artist, so it kind of ran in the family a little bit… so I figured I’d give it a shot. Keep in mind this is not the way to do this… but I went down and got a kit.
My very trusting roommate let me tattoo him almost every day. I’ll have to say that I took to it pretty quick. I’ve seen and covered up lots and lots of horrible tattoos by people that don’t know a single thing about it. I had a couple tattoos before it started, so I had an idea about how it went down.
I kept tattooing him, word spread, and it just started snowballing like that. I ended up hooking up with a couple friends that were already tattoo artists.. my friend Cam Manneke, who had went through a semi-official apprenticeship with a couple of guys and hooked me up with Manson Keeler, who was out of London. He gave me a bunch of pointers and worked with him for a bit. I’ve been at it about 10 years.
SC: You used to have a shop in Wallaceburg, how did you end up at Madness Ink?
Neil: There was a spot open in my hometown of Wallaceburg, right on the main drag and I figured I’d give it a shot, I’ve got nothing to lose, why not. I did and I was very successful. I was very busy and made a name for myself locally.
Just recently I came to see Keith, I wanted to work with some other artists, and move around a little bit. I was in my own little world, I didn’t really have anyone to bounce ideas off of. It was a good move… I came here just over a year ago. It’s been good, I’ve seen myself progress in this year.
SC: What is your specialty?
Neil: I consider myself a street shop artist… which basically means I’ll take on anything that comes in the door. I can anything from traditional to new school bright, packed colour to black and grey realism, portraits. A lot of people say that my colour is very bright and packed . For me, it’s not necessarily what style of tattoo, it’s a lot of times the subject matter.
I really like doing things that are really off the wall and never been done before. Someone might come in and want a teapot tattooed on them, and those are some of the best ones for me. You can put your own spin on it and make it something that no one has ever seen, which what I think tattoos should be about, completely unique.
Madness Ink is located at 225 St. Clair Street in Chatham. To book an appointment, you can call Keith at 519-358-5377 or Neil at 519-437-2389.
This article is sponsored content and is a part of our Keep It Local Business Spotlight feature. Contact Dana Haggith for more information – 519-784-4610 or dana@sydenhamcurrent.ca.
