Meeting JD (Patreon)

"Raven was in San Francisco for a brief time on 9th street. I got there when he opened and decided to get the "wind god" tat. He said I was lucky because it was early and he was still fresh and awake after breakfast and not worn out by some of the difficult people that he had come in and bust his chops.He also gave me a choice of by the hour or a given price. I took the given price and he said it was a bargain because he was fresh and full of energy, as you can see he was, and his work has stay bright after all these years. I believe it was 1982-3." -JD

The first story JD told me, as I was setting up our interview at an Ybor City Pizza shop, was about the time he found himself making an ad hoc tattoo studio out of his van, having discovered a bar full of carnies in Tampa who wanted tattooed. With a mischievous twinkle in his eye he described the good natured degenerates, tough guys and hucksters who joined him in the back of the van, getting skulls and names and roses added to their arms and chests.

The other customers of the restaurant seemed confused by the situation. Other than a few aging tattoos on his arms JD looks like any other Florida retiree; a silver horseshoe mustache and tinted bifocals -he could have passed for the Grandfather of anyone in the room and there I was making a tripod out of two pint glasses turned upside down and a precariously balanced menu for support. Video camera rolling, I assured the table behind us that nothing weird was going on, and then we sat down and for the next hour or so and  talked about tattooing in the 80s, gay trucker erotica and Walt Disney World- all with equal vigor.

The process of meeting JD in person was fairly quick; archiving video footage from the Sailor Sid Diller collection I came across a tape labeled "JD Tattooing" that featured a then unknown shirtless tattooer who answered to John but called himself 'GOD JR' tattooing an eagle on a first time client. The footage was in surprisingly good shape considering it's age and was fairly straightforward: JD tattooed and told stories and the client left with a traditional eagle tattoo on his arm. I recognized the mystery tattooer from photos from Jack Yount and Sid's archives, but with only the name John initials JD to go on I uploaded the video to the Occult Vibrations site asking if anyone could identify him.

It didn't take long; an email from an OV reader named Brian informed me that JD was John Dagion; tattooists and adult content writer who worked in New Jersey before selling his shop and retiring to Florida. Brian worked at an adult bookstore that had just received a large collection of JD's T.R.A.S.H. magazines- DIY style zines featuring interludes with truckers, bikers and other masculine archetypes. Better still- Brian had gotten in touch with JD and had made plans to meet him; promising to take pictures and tell me how it went.

A few weeks later I received an email from Brian telling me that he and JD had met, and as predicted JD was quite a character. I asked if he'd mind putting me in touch with John and in no time I began an email correspondence with JD, rapid fire with several missives a day back and forth talking about the old days, swapping stories and planning an in person meet-up.

Thanks to airline frequent flyer points our meeting would happen less than three weeks after that first email. JD agreed to meet me in Ybor City (a small Tampa Florida neighborhood that boasts some 13 tattoo studios in a two mile radius) and talk about his 'sordid' past for the record. Like Brian, I found JD to be a character and instantly warmed up to him, saying our hellos, telling him how my flight went and then diving into the oral history as the tables around us emptied out and the waiter kept checking on on our drinks and asking if we were okJD admitted to being a utilitarian tattooer who always had an aptitude for drawing; apprenticed by Ernie White in New Jersey he did mostly walk in tattoos on a working class clientele. Nothing special, he'd say, just the standard popular designs at the time. He loved to travel, and tattooing afforded him the ability to make money while away from home; once a year or so he'd visit Sailor Sid Diller in South Florida at his Silver Anchor Studios working on a primarily gay clientele. He worked on a flexible scale on those trips, sometimes enjoying the company of the gentlemen who couldn't afford to pay for their tattoos in cash. Those exchanges were chronicled in his T.R.A.S.H. magazines- True Revelations and Strange Happenings- which he sold via a mailing list and ads in the backs of adult magazines. JD has a way about him that when he tells you these stories- usually featuring a less than intelligent masculine straight guy who is down on his luck but wanting a new tattoo and is willing to do whatever it takes to get it- it's just another funny anecdote from his highly memorable career. The role that gay artists (and gay clients) have played in the history of tattooing from Phil Sparrow, Cliff Raven, Robert Benedetti, Mr. Sebastian and scores of others in and out of the closet is something that needs further documentation and since our meeting  JD has been very helpful with sharing stories and giving names to faces in old photographs in my archives.

We chatted for about an hour on film, mostly about his connection to Sailor Sid and the gay art world, before heading out to a friend's tattoo shop a few blocks away. JD wondered around, checking out the flash ("we sure didn't do anything this complicated in New Jersey") and saying hello to the younger artists, some of whom were likely born after he retired from tattooing professionally. Watching their eyes go as big as saucers when he shows them a Cliff Raven tattoo from the early 80s was priceless.

Before meeting JD it was very easy to think about the men and women in the photographs and videos in my archives as data; images to be scanned and old vhs tapes to be archived and restored without giving much thought to the very real lives they lived that weren't captured on film. Looking through photographs I brought to our lunch his eyes would light up when he'd see a familiar face and we'd run a rabbit talking about them- this one worked for a church, this one was a school teacher- adding a personal connection that has made preserving their memories much more important.