About Jay

Jay is the Founder/Curator/Historian of the Northwest Tattoo Museum. Born in Ventura County, California, Jay's interest in art was ignited by spending weekends at his Grandparents home. His Grandmother was an accomplished artist, and Jay would sit next to her while she did art at night and emulated whatever she was doing. In the late 70's he moved to Oregon to a large Arabian horse ranch. It was later in the Northwest, where he got his start in tattooing learning from an old time carney tattooer, that was 40 years ago. In 1989 Jay opened his first shop in a Harley Davidson repair shop in the Midwest. In 1991 in Kansas City Jay opened his 2nd Tattoo Shop, with partners John Monk, and Fredrick Watson. In 1992 Jay started his long adventure with the R.J. Rosini Tattoo Gypsy Tour, in 1993, in Chicago at the Tattoo Tour convention. This morphed into doing around 10-12 Conventions a year thru the 90's. Later Jay was adopted by Rosini as his Tattoo Son. Jay is still on the "Gypsy Tour" to this day. By 1993 Jay had left Kansas City and moved on to Columbia Missouri where he opened his 3rd shop and he spent over half a decade there before heading back west yearning for mountains and clear water. He then spent a few years, via a short stint in Kansas, in Bozeman, Montana working with R.J.. Jay had helped R.J. with the Bozeman shop in 1994 and would make several trips a year to guest artist for a couple of weeks at a time. In late 2000 He moved to Seattle, wanting to check out the scene there. On July 8th, 2001, Jay's Grandfathers birthday, he was struck by a mini van on his motorcycle which resulted in losing his right leg below the knee. Jay's Grandfather was also a leg amputee, wild isn't it. Jay bounced back from the accident, and even tattooed at the Inkslinger's Ball in Hollywood in September in his wheelchair. Later Jay rebuilt the bike and took it to Sturgis twice. In 2009 Jay was in another motorcycle accident, but his love for the old iron horses that he kept on riding, regardless of the fact that he had broken both hands and wrists. Jay retired from Tattooing in Sturgis and retired from riding motorcycles in 2012 due to health issues and a final motorcycle accident.  Jay has tattooed all over the country in Idaho, California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, South Dakota, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Ohio, Tennesee, Missouri, Louisiana, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Kansas, Georgia, New York, New Jersy and a bunch in between. He has worked at well over 150 Tattoo Conventions, and 20 Sturgis Motorcycle Rallies over the years. In 2002 he moved to N. Idaho and considers it home. In 2003 Jay's Tattoo Father R.J. Rosini passed. Jay and partners Mike Powell, Cherokee Chuck and his wife Chris kept the shop open. The shop is still in Sturgis to this day, open all year around. Jay sold his partnership in the Sturgis shop in 2012. Jay opened his 4th Shop in Moscow Idaho where he spent a decade. He then moved to Coeur d'Alene Idaho, where he opened his 5th and current place for over a decade. 

Jay is active in the Tattoo community, some of his acomplishments are he is a Sitting Member of the Board of Directors, and Vice-Chair on the Education Commitee for the Alliance of Professional Tattooists where he helped develope the Tattoo Apprenticeship Syllabus, the Certificate of Tattoo Mastery exam, and the Preventing Disease Transmission in Tattooing Course, as well as a Lifetime Member and a Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. Jay was awarded the National Tattoo Associations Terry Wrigley Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Tattoo Profession, one of 28 in the world. Jay was the 1st recipient of the RJ Rosini Award, and is in charge of choosing it's yearly recipients. He is a member of the Tattoo Historical Society, and the Bristol Tattoo Club. Jay is also a Contributing Writer for Tattoo Artist Magazine. Jay also takes Tattoo history exhibits to Tattoo Expo's across the country. Jay has recieved multiple awards for his tattooing over the years, but the afore mentioned are the ones he is proudest of.

Jay is also the Promoter of the Coeur d'Alene Tattoo Festival at the Coeur d'Alene Casino, a 5 day tattoo event held yearly, bringing in Tattoo Artists from all over the counrty for this 5 star Tattoo Event attended by some of the top names in Tattooing. This Event is reminicent of the Golden Years of Tattoo Expo's, where comraderie and good times abound, the way it should be, a smaller family like event, not one of the Mega Expo's seen so commonly today. He has brought all generations of Tattooists together from the young to the old. It is held yearly in June.

 Jay is proficient in all styles of tattooing, but currently prefers to focus on Old School American Traditional Tattooing Taking him back to his roots. Jay is currently teaching about the History of Electric Tattooing as an Instructor on Guy Aitchison's Reinventing the Tattoo Online Course. The Tattoo History Course is Free.