Jesse Smith Talks Carkayous, NFTs And The Richmond Tattoo, Art & Music Festival 2023 With Think Before You Ink
By Sidra Lackey
Jesse Smith holds a very significant status within the tattoo industry. Smith has over two decades of tattooing mastery — with a distinct tattoo style of his own — as he is known for his colorful, new school, illustrative tattoos. But before he reached the top-tier as a tattoo artist, Smith was first an artist (with roots in graffiti, to drawing caricatures and earning a Bachelors of Fine Art) and a military brat. Smith went from learning how to make a homemade tattoo gun to do his first tattoo, to being the owner of Loose Screw Tattoo in Richmond, Virginia for over a decade. Smith also has been featured on the popular tattooing reality show Ink Master, on seasons two and seven. In 2020, Smith bravely painted a mural of George Floyd on his tattoo studio’s door (the haunting artwork was put up for auction to support MAD RVA) that was met with unfortunate controversy. Currently, Smith is expanding his fictional continent of Carkayous — where all his tattoos and art live — in today’s world of NFTs.
Think Before You Ink had the pleasure of getting an exclusive interview with Jesse Smith on Carkayous, NFTs and this year’s Richmond Tattoo, Art & Music Festival — dubbed “The world’s longest running tattoo convention” — as Smith runs it.
Think Before You Ink asked Jesse Smith what made him want to start the Richmond Tattoo, Art & Music Festival. But Smith explains he didn’t actually start the convention. “I inherited it back in 2016,” he tells Think Before You Ink. He talks in great length about the longevity of the tattoo convention: “This particular convention has been running for 29 years and even prior to that it had been running, as other conventions, for another six years. So altogether there has been a convention every year for the past 35 years here in Richmond, VA. Within that 35 years almost every major artist who has laid the foundation for what we have today has attended this convention (Paul Rogers, Sailor Moses, Lyle Tuttle, Gil Monte, Guy Aitchison, Paul Booth). And the really cool part about all this is that for 33 of the past 35 years this convention has been held in the same exact location. It's really cool to know that when you walk into our convention, you're walking the same steps of our industry founders.”
Think Before You Ink wanted to know what the progression has been like over the years for the tattoo convention. Smith says, “Throwing this convention has been one of the most difficult things that I have ever done! Unlike your normal business where you can make necessary adjustments on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, a convention is annual so you really don't get to make any adjustments until after you've seen everything you've done right/wrong from the year prior. I equate it to playing a game of mousetrap, you build the whole thing, and then when it's done being built, you release the marble and hope everything works. It's a TON of work but in the end I feel like it's worth it.”
Smith shares with Think Before You Ink how it was like when COVID hit and the convention had to take a hiatus: “The first four years we threw the convention, every year was better than the last, but then COVID hit and the initial lift of getting it back onto its feet was a heavy one so we decided to trim it down a bit. Not only had I lost a lot of my key employees from the previous years, I also lost my partner, Kenny Brown, in a motorcycle accident. Last year was a tough one but I feel like we used that year to build a solid foundation for 2023.”
Smith speaks more on the Richmond Tattoo, Art & Music Festival and what makes it one of the best conventions for tattoo artists and collectors to connect: “I feel like our convention is one of the last conventions out there that is heavily focused on art and the artists. It takes place in a rather small hotel so it gives everyone the opportunity to hang out with one another. Whereas in a larger convention, or one that is thrown in a convention center, everyone seems to spread out in their own directions and there are very few situations/opportunities for artists to cross pollinate.”
Think Before You Ink asked Smith about the infamous tattoo hole installation, better known as the “Glory Hole Tattoo Booth.” Smith explains, “The "Glory Hole Tattoo Booth" is a booth where people can get free tattoos. The only caveat is that they don't get to see the tattoo until it has been completed. As the title states, there is a "Glory Hole" that they must put their arm into that has an artist on the other side. The artist on the other side applies a randomly selected tattoo design on the collector and once it is complete, the collector removes their arm and gets to see the tattoo for the first time.”
Smith has been the owner of his studio, Loose Screw Tattoo since 2011. He tells Think Before You Ink about what the future holds for it. “Loose Screw has been running now for almost 13 years. I have no plans on expanding past the point we are currently at so any forward movement within the shop would be to improve on the systems that help us provide the best experience we can for the artists, employees and collectors that call Loose Screw home. I feel like that will always be an ever evolving goal that will only be achieved by consistently reanalyzing everything often with fresh eyes from varying perspectives. Overall, I'm really happy with where Loose Screw is at the moment and my ultimate goal is to figure out a way for all of my business to work in harmony and be able to feed off one another.”
Think Before You Ink picked Smith’s brain on the cool cartoon world he created, called Carkayous. He was very excited to talk about this long-standing project. “Yes! So back in 2009ish I had been tattooing for about 10 years. At this point in my career I had gained a substantial amount of attention for my work. I had loads of people lining up to get tattooed by me. They'd come in, ask for a squirrel doing this, that or whatever, I'd tattoo it, take a photo and then they'd leave. This happened for years before I started to feel like I wanted to create more depth within my tattoos. So I created this fictitious continent called Carkayous where all of my little critters could live and interact. This is when I feel like the largest project I'll ever work on started to unfold. From that point on every piece of art that I did lived within this world.”
Carkayous has since entered the world of NFTs and Think Before You Ink wanted to know how this collaboration came about — the mixing of tattoos and technology. Smith tells Think Before You Ink: “Fast forward to a couple years ago the NFT space started popping off. I was getting hit up at least a couple times a month from people telling me that the Web3 space was somewhere I needed to be. Initially I was very resistant. I didn't quite understand the tech behind NFTs and was spouting the same thing we all think when we first hear about them like: "Why would anyone spend x amount of dollars on a jpeg of a whatever?" and "I'll just take a screenshot." It wasn't until I had two companies approach me within a week offering me a substantial amount of money that I decided to hop on board. Once I get into the space I realized that it was a WHOLE lot more than just a jpeg. There are a ton of layers and potential behind this technology and the NFTs that we see are just the tip of the iceberg. I've now been in the space for over a year and the things I've learned have been super valuable and inspiring.”
Think Before You Ink asked Smith how he feels about tattoo artists intertwining with technology and entering the new NFT space that was not present decades ago. Smith says, “One of the things I love about the NFT space is the collaborative nature of it. Everyone is always looking to work with and support one another. As far as tattoo artists in the space, there are still very few that are dabbling with it. Which is another reason why it's fun. A lot of us tattoo artists are all working with one another in that space. We almost have our own little genre that we're creating.”
Smith switches gears and shares a bit about his non-profit work. Think Before You Ink asked what made him include charity work in his tattoo convention. “One of the main reasons I started my non-profit was because we were throwing so many charity events and working with so many non-profits that it only made sense to create a hub for all of that intention to gather. Rather than having all of these little charity events with a bunch of different charities, we can now focus all of those events on one charity and in the end do more good.”
Lastly, Think Before You Ink asked Jesse Smith if he could give us a sneak peek into the Richmond Tattoo, Art & Music Festival 2023. Smith says, “Being that the convention isn't until October, we haven't fully locked down all the specifics just yet but we do have a lot of fun ideas floating around. We do, however, have a lot of amazing artists who have already committed to attending. One of which is Ryan Ashley from Ink Master. She's attended our convention in the past and is definitely one of the artists that seems to attract a lot of attention.”
Smith continues on: “Aside from a roster of amazing artists, we will also have our annual "Live Art for Charity" event where we will be bringing in 10 amazing artists, from all different disciplines, to create art to be auctioned off for charity. This money will go to the Giving Arts Foundation which is dedicated to bringing awareness and funds to Ocean and Environmental Conservation.” He adds: “Another thing that we have is the Kids Tattoo Competition where the kids get to "tattoo" their parents/siblings and compete with those tattoos for a chance to win a whole slew of awards. Aside from those things we always have new stuff up our sleeve and will announce them as they unfold and we have them more locked down.”
The Richmond Tattoo, Art & Music Festival sounds like tons of fun. To keep up with news regarding the 2023 convention click here
To check out all things concerning the world of Carkayous click here
Make sure to follow Jesse Smith @jessesmithtattoos