JIMBO: My real name is James. My dad's name was Jim which became confusing, so my dad started calling me Jimbo and the nickname stuck. I was born and grew up in Shively in Louisville, KY. in 1964. I graduated from Western High School in 1983, and joined the Marines that Sept.
When I was about 10, a guy started to work with my dad in his VW garage in Shively. I noticed that he had a tattoo of a cross on his forearm and I was fascinated. I also met a WWII Navy buddy of my dad's that had naked women tattooed on his forearms, and he could make them dance. I couldn't get over the fact that you could actually put pictures under someone's skin and that they would stay.
I was always drawing, and constantly reading about the art. One day on a hidden bookshelf in the Artist's Biograpy Section, I found a book called "Stoney Knows How". It was about a special man....wheelchair bound, who worked in carnivals. He then worked his way into tattooing. It became his passion and lifetime pursuit. It was Stoney St.Clair's saying that became our motto "Ancient as time; as modern as tomorrow", which was a direct quote from his book. This summed it all up, and started a fire in me that has burned since...
I used to sneak off to "Charlie's Place", on 7th and Berry in downtown Louisville, which was about an 8 mile walk one way just to stand outside and peek in the windows. If my mom and dad had known I had strayed that far from home, they'd have skinned me alive!
I got my first tattoo at "Charlie's Place", from Charlie personally. I got about 20 hrs. of tattoo work done when I went into the Marines in 83. They called me "Billboard". More to come...
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