The result of a collaboration between American publisher Raking Light and tattoo artist Chad Koeplinger, the book '50 States' is a unique publishing adventure. Released in 2017, this 352-page book takes us on a journey with Chad as he embarks on an unprecedented challenge to be the first professional to tattoo in all 50 states of the United States. A four-month journey, made between April and August 2016, with only a Toyota and a flashbook as companions. Documented thanks to Chad's camera, we discover the United States through the window of his lens but also through the prism of his passions : travel, gastronomy and, of course, tattooing. A look back at a cult book with this interview with Chad.
How did that idea come about?
I'd thought about for years and years. Thought it would be kind of a fun thing to do, but always when looking at the prospect of doing it, it just seemed like a real big undertaking. Like it'd take a year or more, blah, blah, blah. In late 2015, just right around New Years, I had a life change where I suddenly found myself with a lot more personal freedom and time than I had had for several years. I thought : « Well, I don't really have anything else to do this year, why don't I do that? » I thought I kind of had a small three and a half month window of nothing to do. I didn't live anywhere, so I thought let's see if I can route this to where I can do it as a tour. Like almost as a band does. I think I was at a convention somewhere, and it was in a place like where a lot of bands would play. They had all these tour things on the wall in the bathroom, you know? When looking at these tour dates going, I think I could do that around America. I was in Bali, and one morning I just started mapping out what shops, and where it would be, and how it would work. It all just kind of fell together quite quickly and easily actually.
Tattooing and traveling came together at an early stage in your carrier.
When I started to tattoo, or before I started to tattoo, I was a tattoo collector and a tattoo fan. I was working at a shop as a shop helper. We were having a conversation with my teacher about traveling the world, and he told me that, with someone with no education and no family money like myself, the best ways to do it would be a tattooer or a merchant mariner. I said I'd always wanted to be a tattooer. So, to some degree the idea of traveling and tattooing always was in the mix, it was kind of born from each other in a way. So, the ultimate goal besides being the best tattooer I could be was to also see the world. When the opportunities finally arose, I kinda took the ball and ran with it.
In the intro, both Takahiro Kitamura and Greg Cristian refer to you as the most traveled tattooer of all time.
I've been to 80 countries. I've tattooed in, I don't even know how many, probably 40 or 50 of them. I started tattooing in '97 and I went on my first overseas tattoo trip in 2003, and from probably 2006 to 2015 or more. Honestly I had, maybe almost 10 years, 10 to 12 years I wasn't anywhere for more than two weeks at a time. I would leave every weekend to go somewhere. Whether it was just like: “Oh, I'm in New york, but I'm gonna go to D.C.” or “I'm gonna go to Austin” or “Perhaps I'm gonna go put all my things in storage for a year and just go from shop to shop around the world for whatever how many years”. Most of the time I was only staying three or four days anywhere. But every once in a while I'd stay two weeks. I don't really know too many tattoo artists who did it that way for as long as I did. I've been to Australia almost 50 times, to England probably same 50 to 60 times, Italy and all these other countries a lot. Air miles-wise I probably have at least 2 million. It's not a competition anyway, I don't really care if somebody travelled more or less. I can only say that I, not in like an asshole way, I'm interested to hear about other people's experiences, but I only actually care about my own.
How was it preparing for the trip and looking for places to work?
Not many. I'm very fortunate to have met a lot of people around the world and in America that have shops in different places. Between people I already knew, or people that when I announced the intention of doing the trip that reached out to me to invite me to work in their place, Wyoming was the only one state where I had to find somewhere to work. I didn't know anybody there. And I was recommended to someone who turned out to be a really great person, and had a really great experience at their tattoo shop. Overall I've got no complaints. I didn't really have too many obstacles in my way.
How many customers and tattoos, approximately, did you do during the US trip?
I believe when we counted it was something to the effect of 284ish? Give or take three or four. On the whole trip I had a book of designs that I had tattooed out of. I would say that 98% of the designs I tattooed were picked from the book. That was the idea to keep it like where I could accommodate as many people as I could and enjoy the trip in a way.
Looking at the tattoos you did there the gorilla head is a strong recurrent design, if there was a specific reason for that?
A long time ago I got tattooed by Ed Hardy and he did a gorilla head on me with a dagger through its head. It had these big titties coming out of a rose and it said: “Reborn”. It was really significant in the sense that the moment I got that tattoo, my entire life changed: Ed introduced me to my friend Taki (Takahiro Kitamura, owner of State of Grace in San Jose, California) who pretty much gave me the world. Ed showed me many things on that trip that completely changed my outlook and my ideas and my everything. Ed really changed my life when he did this gorilla on me. Later on I had done a few and somehow people liked them and they kept getting them. I enjoy doing them, and I feel a connection to it.
Is there one tattoo you did on the trip that has a good, or the best story that you'd want to share ?
I'll tell you, the very last was very interesting because it was on guy I hadn't seen in probably close to 25 years: a friend of mine from Michigan when I was a kid. Michigan is shaped like a mitten. So when people show each other where their city is from, you hold your hand up like a mitten and point to a section of your hand. The tattoo I did on him was a star for the city that he grew up in –Flint- which is a little south of where I grew up. We all used to hang out there when I was a kid. It was somebody that I really had a good affinity for when I was young, I hadn't seen in a long time, tattooing something that was from my roots, and it also in some way it's geography and all this kind of thing. That aspect of it, especially it being the final tattoo of the trip, totally by happenstance was really cool to me. That was the one I said, man this was neat.
During the course of the trip you had to change your plans because of health issues and a kidney stone problem. Considering how serious it was you could have cancelled and your customers would have understood, but you didn't. What kept you going?
The whole thought with doing the trip, if you think about cool movies and stuff like that, there's always some sort of adversity along the way. I kind of anticipated that there would be something. And so, to some degree I think it made the entire trip more interesting for myself. To have some sort of struggle to overcome other than just sitting in a car, you know what I mean? I didn't cancel on my customers because I set a goal, and I wanted to accomplish it. Furthermore, I didn't live anywhere, so there was nowhere to go to convalesce; and there was nothing else to do, so ... Plus, I had a really good deal on my rental car that I wouldn't be able to get again, probably, to be able to continue the journey another day. So for me it was like: well, what else am I gonna do? Maybe I'm stupid or maybe I'm just not weak. I don't know. Did I answer that?
I think so.
I mean I could just say I'm not a pussy. But I don't want to be that arrogant. In the end it was a combination of: I had nowhere to go; I said I was gonna do it; the rental car was cheap; people were at certain places coming from far away to go there; I had built a lot of hype on it and I didn't want to fail. You know what I mean? As much as I don't care what other people think, at the same time you are doing something in the public eye, and I want to be seen as a person that makes things happen. Not a person that has a little bump in the road and backs off. I guess what I had was a little more than a bump in a road, but… whatever.
Is there something that you learn from tattooing in the U.S. that you didn't know before visiting all the studios? I don't know. Nothing I guess, I'm not really sure. I think I just met a lot of nice people I didn't know before or was able to kind of reacquaint myself with some people I hadn't seen in a long time. I met a lot of nice people. In the end, for the most part tattooing is kind of tattooing. It's a beautiful thing in that way that no matter where you're at, it's kind of the same thing. I think whether you're in a fucking cave on a cliff in Nepal or you're in a street shop in ST. Louis, or you're at a convention in Paris, you're still just doing the tattoo. The people connect in the same way.
In the end, the trip was an eye opener, and while having travelled everywhere in the world: you fell in love with your country. How did you come to realize that?
Look. America, it's what I'm used to, so it's easy. There's places in it that are difficult for people that care about the way they feel; places where it's impossible to find healthy food. I'm sure if I were to interact with local people more, a lot narrow minded whatever, whatever ignorance, but overall America is the most geographically diverse country on Earth. It has every single climate and geographical detail there is. So, to be able to do, obviously with the exception of Alaska and Hawaii, to see all that by land really shows you how it changes, how it all works together, how it's cohesive, how it makes sense –or not, sometimes. And it's pretty vast. There's something too, about just being on the road and not being crowded which that just really makes you feel great. Yeah, I totally fell back in love with being here and realized there's so much to offer here, it's not all just everywhere else.
After all these travels, the conclusion of this trip is that you decide to settle down in Nashville, Tennessee. Isn’t it ironical?
I knew that it was a nice town, it just seemed like a good place to live. It wasn't completely overrun with people that I knew having their own tattoo shops there. In fact, someone that had it, that was working at a tattoo shop there that invited me to open a shop there, so it got my curiosity and it just felt right. My brother Josh was moving there to tattoo and I wanted to be close to him. So, I was like: “Yeah, let's do it”. I did, and everything kind of really fell together: I have a shop, I met the woman of my dreams that I married. Unfortunately, recently my brother passed away. That part sucks. But overall, sometimes you have to listen to the voice that tells you what to do, you know? And for the last 15 years or something, I haven't really had one. The voice was telling me to go everywhere. Then now the voice said: "This is the spot." And it truly has been. Every single aspect of it is falling together really lovely. You just gotta keep your eyes open and pay attention to what's going on. Then the world will tell you what's best for you. + IG : @rakinglightprojects / @chadkoeplingertattoo https://rakinglightprojects.com/
