Tattooing Is Too Accessible with Nick Bones

The hosts welcome Las Vegas tattooer Nick Bones, who has tattooed for 20 years in a traditional-ish pop culture style and plans to spend the next two years traveling in a self-built camper van doing guest spots, promoting stops like a band on tour, and starting a van-recorded podcast, “Between Appointments,” about what tattooers do outside tattooing and their favorite local spots. The conversation covers rock climbing and hand/grip training, convention seminars and networking, and the economics and quality issues of $10 tattoo shops. They debate tattoo “literacy,” how clients perceive good vs bad work, trends making tattoos feel disposable, and the difficulty of laser removal. The group reacts to a badly blown-out neck tattoo, AI-generated convention banners and posters, and a bizarre toy-like tattoo machine design, and ends with a comedian’s joke about blackout tattoos.