CRISTOPHER FARWELL INTERVIEW

Cristopher Farwell is a tattoo artist from Santa Rosa, CA. I wanted to catch up with him and see how tattooing has been treating him.

What’s up brother it’s been a minute. Thanks for agreeing to do this. I was just thinking about how you gave me my first tattoo.

It has been a minute my dude. I didn’t realize I had given you your first, but that was a looooong time ago haha.

Do you remember what it was?

I wish I could lie and say yes. But unfortunately I’m a bad liar and have shit memory.

I won’t hold it against you. That was like 15 years ago. It was a reaper smoking a long pipe haha. You pretty much started tattooing right out of high school correct? How did you get into it?

Hahaha I bet that thing looks greaaaaaat these days. I started tattooing when I was 20, worked a few years in the restaurant industry before taking the plunge into it. I grew up around tattooing, my parents had a friend Jamie who would come over and tattoo them out of our house, and put stencils on my brother and I so we were “tattooed” as well. I had a friend I worked with at the restaurant who started tattooing and he was fairly influential on me. He had suggested that I give it a try, and after getting my first tattoo at 17, my dad had told me that he thought tattooing would be right for me because “I didn’t like to follow orders and didn’t want to work a real job.” So I ordered some cheap equipment off the internet, and started tattooing people out of my room until I got approached by a local artist who offered me to come hang out at the Tattoo Shop. I was kind of a hang around, sweeping up, answering phones, and doing paperwork. Until they finally offered me the apprentice position.

Hell yeah, checks out. What shop was that and what was your apprenticeship like? I hear they can be pretty rough and hard to get practice. Not just anybody wants to let a beginner draw on them permanently.

I got offered an apprenticeship at The Hole Thing in Santa Rosa. The roughest part of my apprenticeship was working at the restaurant and splitting time between the shop. I was working seven days a week, trying to make ends meet while also trying to help out as much as I could at the shop. I must’ve annoyed the shit out of the artists there, because I didn’t want to leave, I felt like I had my chance to get in, and I wanted to make the most out of it. It was definitely rough, I wasn’t taking on walk-ins or people coming into the shop. I had to rely on my friends and family to put trust in me. Luckily for me, I had a group of people around me that even if they knew they weren’t going to get a quality tattoo, they had enough trust and faith that they still came in and let me get some practice

Hey I trusted you and I always left happy. What shop are you at now? I gotta come by and get some new ink. You have been killing it lately man. I know you never stop growing but you are pretty established right now huh?

You did trust me. Anybody who got tattooed by me back then I feel forever indebted to. I wasn’t the best graffiti artist, I wasn’t the best artist in general. But somehow, I figured out how to make solid tattoos and have been able to build a career off of it. I appreciate that, it’s definitely a labor of love, and even now 13 years in, I still feel like it’s a win some lose some battle. I currently tattoo out of Avenue Tattoos in Santa Rosa. I definitely have a solid clientele, which makes life a little easier. I do feel established, but there’s always still room to grow. Whether it’s improving with artistry or the new way of social media to gain better visibility and reach, it’s kind of a never-ending race that you have to stay on top of.

I was gonna ask you about that. What is your take on tattooing and the role social media plays, and is it in a good place right now generally? It’s seems to be as popular as ever. And from what I’ve seen most clients come via way of social media.

Social media plays a huge role now. I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad thing honestly. I think it’s a double edged sword. Tattooing is definitely more popular than ever, but I see better tattooers than me being slow because they’re not on their social media. It’s no longer just about tattooing. Sometimes I see people that don’t make the best tattoos being busy because they have a bigger follower count and the client thinks they’re getting a better product because that person is more “popular” then somebody who would do the job a hundred times better. I think social media is a good thing to be able to connect with people, And a great way to showcase your portfolio. But it also turns in to a popularity contest from time to time. A higher follower count often doesn’t translate into a better product at the end of the day.

True. Some of my favorite artists don’t even have social media. I wish I could do that sometimes. I was wondering, do you ever feel limited in tattooing and how do you mix your flavor into what the client wants?

There are some days that I wish I didn’t have to deal with social media as well. Sometimes I do feel limited, but I have to remind myself that I’m lucky to be able to hang out with my friends and draw for a living. I think being able to express yourself and add a little flavor into the mix comes with time. My favorite projects come from a client that is open-minded. I’ve been lucky to have people that trust me enough to just tell me a general concept and allow me to design something for them that fills their needs, but also lets me put a spin on their design enough to satisfy myself.

Yes being able to do art is a privilege. It’s a great thing to be able to remember that and check yourself when you are feeling boxed in. Do you notice a difference in Bay Area tattooing and other cities around the states?

I haven’t tattooed much outside of the Bay Area. With my experiences in guest spots, tattooing seems to be about the energy of the shop. If you have a group of likeminded artists who get along and generally enjoy being around each other and push each other to be better, the work is going to reflect that. I’ve visited countless shop outside of the United States as well, and it all feels familiar. I think at the end of the day, if you’re good to tattooing, tattooing will be good to you. Respecting the culture and history, as well as keeping your ego in check makes for a good environment for growth and tattooing.

I love that. It’s all about respect and keeping your mental in check. Everything else seems to work itself out. What advice would you give to kids trying to get into tattooing right now that are just starting. Pretty much what you just said yeah?

Pretty much what I just said. You have to respect tattooing, you have to respect other people. Tattooing isn’t about being a cool guy, or a big dog. You have to realize how lucky you are to get the opportunity to be a tattooer, and have people trust you to make permanent alterations to their bodies. To the younger kids, do it the right way. Get an apprenticeship, cut your teeth in the trenches. Hang out with the older artists and learn history and techniques from them. Paint. Paint until you are so burnt out the sight of watercolor paper makes you sick. And then paint more. And remember you can learn a little something from anyone. If someone is offering advice, just listen.

Listen to him kids. You may just be something. Last question. Face tats what are the rules and should we be worried about people with teardrops?

Just don’t tattoo your face. And if you do, don’t start there. Or your hands. Or your neck. You’ll look way cooler getting your chest or back tattooed. Absolutely. Every single tear drop tattoo should be taken seriously, and definitely not like their friend bought a $70 tattoo kit off Facebook marketplace, gotta be safe.

I’ll take your word for it. Well man it’s been great catching up and thanks again for doing this. Any last words or anything you wanna plug?

It’s been great dude. Get cool tattoos. That’s about it. Check out our shop over at Avenue Tattoo. We have a ton of great dudes making great tattoos every day. Thanks for letting me do this my dude. I appreciate it. It was rad to catch up!  🔒

Follow @cfarwelltattoos