Honest Tattooer Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Jon Mesa, Matt Truiano, G Money, Matt Buck, and Ermis host an episode of the Honest Tattooer podcast where they play a three-round card game to see how well they know each other, with one “call bullshit” per round to push deeper answers. In round one they debate pet peeves (including enforced “silent” shops), who would struggle if Instagram disappeared, who would walk out of a bad guest spot, the worst boothmate, and who’s the biggest tattoo snob, leading into talk abou...

Send us Fan Mail On the Honest Tattooer Podcast, Jon Mesa, Matt Truiano, and Gabe discuss key tattooing questions before sharing street interviews recorded at the Richmond Tattoo Convention. They reflect on beliefs they’ve changed, what they’d do differently, and what styles they’d pursue if they couldn’t tattoo their signature work. They debate Instagram’s shift to video and a proposed 90-minute upload feature. Several artists argue great tattooing can be technical without great drawing, dis...

Send us Fan Mail Matt Truiano hosts this week as the crew starts of the talks with what they did this week. Buck starts a freehand half-sleeve of a green lion with a grapevine tail eating the sun; Vega paints Halloween flash and books a Turkish/Eurasian floral tile tattoo; Matt finishes a large back cover-up transforming a Cheshire Cat into a turkey vulture and retouches a client’s Garden of Eden throat piece. They then play a “Heads Up!”-style guessing game using common tattoo motifs. Suppor...

Send us Fan Mail On the Honest Tattooer podcast, Jon Mesa and Matt Truiano, welcome back Ryan Roi for his fourth appearance to discuss why tattooers’ bookings dropped and how he pivoted from financial advising to full-time marketing coaching for tattooers. Ryan explains the difference between content and marketing, focusing on deposits over views or followers, and emphasizes local leads, clear location info, consistent calls-to-action, and improving DM-to-appointment conversion (includi...

Send us Fan Mail Jon Mesa and Matt Truiano welcome Josh Adams, creator and host of the tattoo docuseries Skin Deep, to discuss how the show documents tattoo artists, shop culture, and personal stories across seasons in the U.S., New York/LA, and an upcoming London season. Josh shares getting his first tattoo at 14 as rebellion, his background filming musicians and comedians on tour, and why he wanted to highlight tattooers’ stories beyond the work. They talk about choosing artists through ref...