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Chad Lombard
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My name is Chad Lombard AKA "Sketch" and i am a Professional Artist.
Ive been drawing since I was in first grade. I use draw the teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and whatever cartoon I loved back then.
it wasnt until my teenage yrs that the tattooing industry didnt present itself. I was 17 and my biological family was having me over for a visit. my step father on that side of the family was getting his whole back done. it just so happens, that this was his first session tonight. He was getting the entire Outline done. I immediately fell in Love with the experience and wanted to know everything I could. But I had to be extra careful because my adopted mother is a full blown bible thumping Christian and raised me Free Will Baptist. In their religion you never get tattoos or have anything to do with them. so me wanting to persue tattooing was very unlikely. I did tried very hard to go around her that religion without getting caught. This lead me to walk into a random parlor and ask where they sold the motors at? At first I felt discouraged, because I didn't think I was going to be able to get one. to my luck, a professional artist came to the front and told me he told me he'd sell me one of his, that he had for sale. now I didn't know if this motor what is a $5 motor or $300 motor, but I wanted it, so I got it this motor in itself cost me $200. and I didn't even know if it was a Liner or Shader. after, a lot of trial and error and a lot of friends in the neighborhood any random tattoos somewhere in the mix I knew I want to become a tattoo artist.
it wasn't until 2006 did I again want to try to pursue the tattooing industry. this time though, I started learning where equipment was at and I could buy it at a store. the place that I went to is a place called Area 51 and downtown St Louis they still sell equipment to this day. so, I decided to buy everything I could that was about tattooing not knowing what was what not knowing what was where any of that but I did buy the beginners DVD and I watched it over and over and over try to figure out how this part goes to this part and that part and that part goes to that part. taught me that's I put a bend in my needle. to answer that question is because the Armature bar is at a certain standard and when you have a Bend in your needle it causes a vertical swoop in and out of the barrel as it goes in and out of the tube. there is a lot more things that they call me and I have forgot some and I remembered some over the years but I tried to keep most of it either very important Trade Secrets that all of his professional artist know and not just a freelancer on the street.
In 2008, I walked into 9th Street Tattoo in Columbia Missouri. I already knew about that apprenticeships cost money whole lot of money a lot more money than I had. Ron Bradley is the gentleman that took me on as his Apprentice. to my luck once again, he did it for free. now, don't get me wrong I had to jump through a lot of Hoops to get this apprenticeship even him putting on his playlist the Hokey Pokey and the chicken dance when these songs came up I had to get up in front of customers and do the hokey pokey and the chicken dance. I became very Furious and frustrated and at one point even told me I was going to do it. he was in the middle of doing a tattoo and wasn't going to be happy if you had to stop. I continued in giving him a hard time and so he did take off his gloves and told me to go to the back of the office. he asked me did I want this opportunity and I'm about to blow it said you know what you got yourself into when you one of your apprenticeship and you are to do everything I tell you to do I was Furious didn't know what the heck the chicken dance or the Hokey Pokey had to do with anything with tattooing and you simply said to me if you pull your head out your ass long enough you would see im teaching youvhumility and teaching you that sometimes you may not want to do something but you still have to do it. My head was mind-blowing and at the same time receptive to the information. from that point on it's what sets the stage for everything. now I do have my exceptions and I'm allowed that much. if I choose, I do not have to do any tattoos that pertain to gang affiliations or any vulgar tattoos of my choice. I have kept to this and still do.
During that time, there was a lot of things going on in my family my son was about to be born. the doctors told told us that my son has cyst in his brain. this is an unusual type of cyst; Vein of Galen malformation is what it's called it's very rare one in a million kid get so My son is born in Columbia Regional Hospital and was airlifted to St Louis Children's Hospital all on the same day. The doctors said that he had to stay up in St Louis so he was near the st. Louis Children's Hospital at all times. this became a little obstacle in my apprenticeship which is okay, because I found another parlor up in St Louis.
The name of the Parlor was Art & Soul tattooing and Body Piercing on Page Avenue, in St Louis Missouri.
Dustin Merriman is the owner of the Parlor and was the one took me on as his head artist. Dustin near that there was something about my art that was going to be the greatest I guess I don't know what he saw but it was something in me. immediately I was put to work. I don't know to this day if is there any events that happened on certain nights if he had a part to do with it but when your scheduled to have three artists working with you throughout the night you're the only one that shows up and you're the only one that's there, and and it's like that throughout the whole night and you had a gang full of people coming in just by chance and you're having to perform tattoos make appointment talk to customers run the whole show like a three-ring circus and I fall under pressure. I learned a lot of things in the night real fast like. one that was crucial was it somebody wanted appointments and you're a middle of a tattoo you did not stop are you did she picked up the surgical marker that you were using for tattooing on that person and you wrote the appointment on her body and you kept on working cuz you knew that surgical marker was not going to walk away and that's how you kept on going yeah people drop money for deposits on tattoos and just kept on going by in the night I'm in a hell of a lot of money that and I can keep everything because I did such a good job and I asked him I said did you have anything on man they might even the other two other guy artist in because I knew that you were going to be in there by yourself I'd like to say for these reasons those are some of the best memories I've ever had in my life. To this day and hench forth these gentleman that taught me everything I need to know with tattooing and maybe someday owning my own parlor.
My name is Chad Lombard and I love tattooing more than anything. IT IS my passion and there many other stories I have that come with this profession and I'll leave those stories for my clients, come and get a tattoo......
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