While rich colors have come a long way in the world of tattooing, the decision to stick to the basics still has an undying appeal among both collectors and artists alike. A talented hand with the ability to blend multiple washes of black and gray’s into a powder clean image can stand up next to the best of color. Robert Pho’s eye sees the world not in color, but shades of gray and his soft, smooth, realistic style of tattooing commonly topples its colorful rivals at conventions across the nation.
INK: Tell me a little about your initial exposure to tattooing?
ROBERT: I used to watch a lot of my homies back in the day giving tats to each other, nothing fancy, just letters & numbers.
INK: What was your reaction the moment you hit your first patch of skin with a tattoo machine?
ROBERT: That shit fucking hurts! I was my first guinea pig. I did my own first tattoo on myself and my thoughts were, man this is horrible! But I had to finish. (This was all in jail by the way around 89 or 90). I didn’t know how deep I had to go, so I really did myself deep. Horrible!
INK: Did you do a formal apprenticeship and if so then where?
ROBERT: I never did a formal apprenticeship.
INK: If I had to guess I’d say you did a lot of pencil drawing at a young age.
ROBERT: You guessed correctly. I don’t think I’ve done much of anything else when I was young but that.I still do mostly pencil drawing at this age. Sometimes I feel like I’m really so far behind. I mean do people still draw with pencils?
INK: What do you find so appealing about black and grey work?
ROBERT: It’s not that I find black and grey work so appealing, but after doing it for so long, it’s like this is all I know and see. Not that I’m colorblind but I really do look at everything with black & grey tones. Does that make sense?
INK: You do a lot of portrait work. Is this what you enjoy the most or simply what you get the most requests for?
ROBERT: It’s probably a little of both. I do get a lot of request for my black and grey work, portraits I would say at this point, 50% maybe. But I do really enjoy portrait work. I don’t know why, I just do. Even back then when I sucked at portraits, I enjoyed it.
INK: It seems that you have a busy convention schedule lately. With the abundance of new shows, many artists have mixed feelings about conventions. What do you think about today’s average expo?
ROBERT: Expos are cool man, I don’t really do too many like it may seem, but mainly to visit friends and of course to try and make lots of money. I know there’s a lot of conventions, some more talent driven, some more money hungry driven, but at the end if we all can make money, and have a decent time, that’s what it’s about.
INK: Tattooing has found its way into the mainstream in recent years. How do you feel about tattooing in the media?
ROBERT: It’s got its good and it’s bad. Good because it brings more clients to our doors. Bad because now every non-tattooer wants to open a shop and hire artists to work and make money for them and every 16 year old and their grandparent’s wants a tattoo now cause it’s in. Me personally tattooing in the media, I couldn’t find the guts to do it, I’ve been asked a few times. I’d be so paranoid. For the artists, that’s cool because they have a chance to be famous, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not for everybody. For me, it’s the passion for the art, making decent money, enjoying my freedom, and living a simple, quiet peaceful family life. I don’t care what’s mainstream and what’s not.
INK: Being a tattoo artist means that you often see things that the average person would consider a little over the edge. What’s the wildest thing you’ve witnessed in the tattoo business?
ROBERT: The wildest thing for me was when we had to battle to keep our tattoo studio after shortly being opened in 1999, High Point, North Carolina. Doctors, politicians, lawyers, old and rich people that were neighboring to our shop all got together and hired their lawyer to try to revoke our business license because they didn’t like the type of business it was. We’ve fought long horrified daily battles of intense media, harassment from numerous officials, neighboring businesses, etc… Went to a Guilford County Board of Adjustment hearing. That was UNREAL! It was like a dream. That was the wildest thing I’ve ever seen especially just shortly moving from California to North Carolina. One day I’m gonna write a story about this.
For one reason or another, many artists choose not to associate themselves with color work. Whatever this calling may be, it also keeps many collectors entranced in the world of black and gray. Variety is the spice that keeps the flavor in the tattoo community. Though many artists would argue that one should do his best not to get entrenched into a particular style, over the years it seems inevitable that we weed out our surroundings. While sometimes this process is a matter of what we like, it can also be attributed to who we are. Perhaps we are each genetically engineered to see and understand things in a particular way. If this is the case, it would seem that Robert Pho has been programmed to show us realism on skin, stripped of color yet unrelenting in beauty.