Charles Berger is a tattoo artist who plies his trade at Heroes and Ghosts in Carytown. We’ve known Charles for some time, and watched his talent grow immensely over the past few years. His work was featured in the Valentine Richmond History Center’s recent exhibition, History, Ink: The Tattoo Archive Project. This project featured the tattoos of current Richmond VA residents, and documented the importance of tattoo art in the artistic culture of RVA as we know it today. We caught up with Charles to talk about a number of things, from tattooing in Richmond to Victorian Futurism.
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How long have you been tattooing professionally?
About four and a half years, honestly. And any real progression I have seen has been over the past two years.
What initially sparked your interest in becoming a tattoo artist?
I came to Richmond to go to art school. I’ve always been involved in the visual arts somehow, mostly through painting, drawing, illustrations; I got into the graffiti world quite a bit. That helped me refine my color palettes, dimension, form, stuff of that nature. And as far as tattooing, it just came naturally in the avenue of the arts. I have always been intrigued by it, drawn to it. I had been collecting tattoos for years, and knew I wanted to make them one day.
It’s interesting--I have found a lot of tattoo artists come from a background of self-taught art, and often graffiti.
Yep, there are a lot of tattoo artists that were graffiti artists. It’s become much more prevalent.
It’s definitely something I hear people say in Richmond.
Yeah, it’s not just a tattoo town but a graffiti town as well. I mean, here lately it’s really been more mural-based instead of graffiti-based, but graffiti will never die.
I would like to congratulate you at this time on being a very very tattooed tattooer... if that’s how you say it.
[laughs] You know, I have always collected them, and I will continue to collect them as much as I can.
So whose work do you have on you? Throw out some names.
Greg Aigner, Mike Moses, Brian Finn, Jesse Smith, Greg French, Scott Sketo, Fred Pinckard, Gunner, ISH, Professor Falcon, Bok, Scott Parsons, Casey Middleton, Andy Brodsky, uh.. quite a bit.
Yeah, you’ve got a lot, it’s awesome. Well, people that give tattoos who don't have tattoos kinda get...
...looked at funny. Yeah, you don't have to be tattooed to apply a good tattoo, of course. [But] when you have so many tattoo artists around you, I’m not sure how you can escape it. I can understand saving spots for people, but at some point if you’re really that passionate about tattooing people, I feel like that passion would be reflected in getting tattooed.
So who initially taught you?
I was apprenticed by Casey Middleton, and had a great amount of influence and help from Scott Parsons, Greg Aigner, Brian Finn, and the other guys at Enigma back then. They showed me the anatomy of machines and how to apply a good tattoo. [In] traditional apprenticeships, you'll have one teacher and one student. But there is never a case where you learn from just one person. You’re surrounded by other artists and influences, you pick people’s brains all around you, and find things that apply to your style.
Do you think there is a common thread among people who get tattoos?
A person that varies from traditional aesthetics, in a sense. Whether they come from the same walks of life or not, there is something there that I guess is a parallel for many. [Recently] people of a different way of thinking are getting tattooed. True art collectors are seeing the value of tattooing and what can be done with it now. They will continue to collect and they will go to good artists. That’s why it’s important to stand out in the crowd of tattooing.
Well, how do you stand out?
[laughs] That’s a good question, man. I feel that one’s style builds over time. It takes dedication, motivation, and practice to develop a recognizable style--something that I work toward every day.
That gets us into the whole traditional vs... What would you call it? New school?
Well, there’s traditional, illustrative, new school, realism, etc. I love them all and I respect them all equally.
What were you initially taught?
I started off doing pretty basic flash off the walls--tracing flash, tattooing existing drawings from other tattoo artists that know what translates into a tattoo. And that’s really important, to have a strong foundation; to understand about solid lines, bold color, and smooth fades. This all translates into whatever style you wish pursue eventually. Someone that uses influence from whatever style they are intrigued by, and makes it their own completely--that’s what gets recognized, and that’s how people build clientele.
What’s your favorite thing about working with clients? What’s your least favorite thing?
I like clients who know what they want for the most part, but still let me have some creative freedom. That’s the best way to do it--collaborate. Now, I will say that some people come in with fantastic ideas and I don’t really have to change much about it. Some people come in with awesome ideas. But yeah, I like to have a little bit of creative freedom. And [I like] the ones that tip.
What are the weirdest tattoo requests that you’ve had?
I was working in DC on barracks row; I was tattooing a lot of Marines. These guys come in and one of the Marines had lost a bet. It was a staying awake for 48 hours bet, or something like that. So he passes out and goes to sleep so he has to get one of his friend’s drawings tattooed on him. And his friend had drawn 2 monkeys getting it on. I ended up tattooing them right by his ass crack, on his ass cheek.
My favorite one as of late, a guy came in and said he wanted his whole right ass cheek tattooed. He wanted the words “let’s get weird” tattooed huge on his ass in all sorts of different lettering styles, all in one. So we did it. We did it on his whole right ass cheek: “Let’s get weird.” His first tattoo. It was pretty amazing. And the half sleeve of Christmas lights is something else…
That’s kind of creative. Creative stuff is cool. But the “let’s get weird” tattoo, that’s been one of my favorites so far. That moves us into script. What’s your history of lettering work?
It’s funny--throughout the years, I’ve talked to numerous artists about lettering. Artists that do nothing but [lettering], and [others] who say it ruins tattoos. The truth of the matter is people are always going to want lettering. Even if you’re a full custom artist, people are going to want lettering incorporated in the tattoo. So it’s important to do it well. I had an advantage, as far as lettering goes, being a graffiti artist. I had been practicing for years. So that translated well into script and other styles of lettering in tattooing. It came a little bit easier to me. Now there’s part of me that wishes I would have spent a lot more time focusing on figure drawing and actual imagery as opposed to lettering, but I enjoy doing it. I think it can actually enhance a tattoo if done correctly.
Tell me a little bit about the Valentine Museum and your work in there.
It was brought to me by word of mouth. A good friend of mine had heard about the event. It intrigued me. You had to send people down to get photographed and go through a selection process. I guess they liked one or two of my pieces, and they ended up using the steampunk wings that I did as their advertising. It was really an honor; I had no idea that was going to happen. Honestly, it was humbling as far as being featured with really great artists in Richmond. What they were trying to accomplish with this most recent event was [showing] where tattooing is now, in Richmond. It wasn’t focused on the history of tattooing in Richmond, because that is quite a feat. To get all the proper information accumulated, that’s a whole other world. So what they were doing is focusing on where the artists are now, what tattooing is now in Richmond, and what avenue it’s gone down. So it’s really nice to be a part of it. I love this city and it was nice to be featured in that.
What do you think of tattooing in Richmond?
I love it.
It’s obviously a city that’s mentioned in tattooing, in the world.
It’s a tattoo town, and I love it. You’ll hear a lot of people say it’s over-saturated. Sure, there are a lot of shops in Richmond, and a lot of people have a lot negative things to say about that, as far as tattoo artists go. “There are too many street shops,” “there are too many tattoo artists in this town,” “it’s really affecting business”... The way I feel about it is this. Sure, having all this oversaturation of tattoo shops and artists may hurt business somewhat, but it’s also bringing the attention of tattooing to the city, which is helping the city. If you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing and you are 100% in trying to improve your craft every day, you’re going to continue to bring in clientele, regardless of how many tattoo shops or tattoo artists are out there.
Do you think what speaks for a tattoo artist is regular clientele, as opposed to walk-ins?
It can. There’s a lot involved in having and building clientele. There’s promoting yourself, being sociable, having good bedside manner, customer service, all these things. But the most important thing is doing quality work. That’s it.
Your work is going to always speak for itself.
It has to. That’s going to create word of mouth, and word of mouth is the most credible way of promotion. Other people promoting you because they’ve collected something from you.
Where are you now in tattooing? Where are you with your work and what you do?
I’m still new to the game, man.
Since I’ve known you, I’ve seen you go into your own realm of sorts. I know no one wants to get stuck in a catchphrase, so if I were to say steampunk...
Victorian Futurism.
Victorian Futurism, [laughs] I guess you can say that, but I know it’s something you have been doing a little bit of.
Yeah, I enjoy doing it. I really love the aesthetic. I like the culture; it’s based on being a gentleman or a lady. It’s based on a Victorian attitude and a Victorian way of life. It’s a beautiful thing. There’s some class to it. The aesthetic of it is a little more rough and rugged, but it’s beautiful to me.
It has an element of class, mixed with gears and Victorian elements, so you can go Art Nouveau but still keep that traditional style, where you have heavy lines and stuff.
Sure, you can pull it off however you want, but as far that whole aesthetic of the Victorian flourishes and everything, it’s gorgeous to me. It’s got a lot of nice flow and a good feel to it.
If someone wanted to break into the business and become a tattoo artist, what do you say to that?
Apprenticeships. That’s the only way to do it; however long it takes to learn the craft, to where you can make a good tattoo. There are a lot of people that are just, literally, ordering kits online, trying to learn themselves. There’s just no way that you’re going to succeed at the rate you need to by doing that. Nor will you have appreciation or respect for the craft and the industry by doing it that way.
How has tattooing changed you or affected you overall?
Honestly, it has completely saved my life. I’ve made some bad decisions, to put it lightly, in my life. I’ve gone down some strange avenues and weirder alleys. Tattooing has brought me back--the combination of tattooing and my family. It’s a beautiful thing, because without tattooing, I wouldn’t be able to support my family, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else to make a living, just on a daily basis. It’s really helped me to improve my work ethic, it’s helped me better myself as an artist, better myself as a person in the way that I communicate with people, the general public, on an individual personal basis with people. It’s really helped me improve most of those things. It’s helped save my life. It’s one of the reasons that I get up every day. [The] second [is] my beautiful wife Nikki, our daughter Madison, and our soon to be [born] Aurora. Every day is a gift.
If you were to pick any person in history, tattoo artist or not, to put a tattoo on you, who would that person be?
It would probably be a collaboration between DaVinci, Mucha, and whoever tattooed Otzi the caveman. Because that shit will last forever.
I know, for a while, you went to California. What were you doing there?
I tried to leave Richmond--as many do, but always find themselves back here. I did DC for a couple of years, then I went to LA. To be honest, when I went to LA was when I started to see a change and improvement in my craft. I had the honor and pleasure of working with some very fantastic artists out there in a full custom shop, Kayden Creations. There are a bunch of great guys out there that really helped me along in improving my style. I did the LA thing and it wasn’t me. It wasn’t as gritty and grimy as the East Coast. It was fun, but my family and home is here. So I came back and figured I’d give Richmond another shot.
I was lucky to find Heroes and Ghosts, and it’s really helped me tenfold in tattooing. It has been by far the best shop I’ve ever worked in, with the greatest group of guys, and I owe a lot to them for my career. I wouldn’t be sitting here with you right now if it wasn’t for my Heroes and Ghosts family--Greg French, Susie and Grady Nash, all of them. I couldn’t ask for a better place to work. It is hands down my favorite place I’ve ever been, as far as tattooing. Just being surrounded by a great group of artists at the shop and just being able to talk to them as friends; that in itself has really helped me to improve. I would say that between my Heroes and Ghosts family, my immediate family, and my close friends, they have played a huge role in where I am now.
www.charlesbergertattoos.com