#82 You Have to Pay Your Dues, There's No Shortcut - Jay Eakin, Eastside Tattoo

Growing up in the tougher parts of North Portland, Oregon, Jay Eakin turned to dealing drugs and wound up becoming one of his own customers, an addict. Then, to support his own habit, turned to robbing banks out of desperation for cash and served time for four bank jobs. In prison, he needed cash - again - but with no banks in prison to rob, he turned to art. And tattooing was his medium, and he was good. Eight to ten hours a day he worked on being excellent; "When you do a tattoo for someone who'd killed a person, you want to get it right..", Jay laments. When he got out, he continued a grinding work ethic. Moving to the south US to be near his son, Jay worked a week of 12-hour shifts at a drilling rig, then a week at the tattoo parlor, then repeated the cycle. Eventually, his debts paid off, he moved back to Portland and opened up his own shop. Felony Inc Podcast with your host Mark Gailey We record the Felony Inc Podcast inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland. Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil Show logo was designed by Carolyn Main Website was designed by Cameron Grimes Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster Theme music "Free" written and recorded by Dave Dahl, all rights reserved, motherfuckers This weeks podcast brought to you in part by soap-on-a-rope, when you don't want to drop stuff Felony Inc Podcast supports City Central Concern at centralcityconcern.org 10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes Listen to the Felony Inc Podcast live on-air every Friday at 10:00am pacific time on Startup Radio Network at startupradionetwork.com