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 37 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, 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.. 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. Jay retired from Tattooing in Sturgis and riding motorcycles in 2012 due to health issues.  Jay has tattooed all over the country in Idaho, California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, South Dakota, Nevada, Florida, Ohio, Tennesee, Missouri, Louisiana, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Kansas, Georgia, New York and a bunch in between. He has worked at well over 100 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 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.