“I used to draw on people all the time with markers. I never thought about tattoos before then, but ever since I saw those first tattoos in the San Gabriel area, I fell in love with the idea of making tattoos. I developed a fascination with it. It was calling me, and I came to it. That was the beginning, and from there, my brother and I made a homemade tattooing machine. We got the instructions to make the machine from my cousin, who was in prison. Back then, there weren’t distributors selling these start-up kits, so we had to put it together with a motor and all kinds of little parts. The rest was making history.”

— Franco Vescovi