Ink Fink in Tampa is a locally owned tattoo shop with very unique employees.
Owner Matthew Damucca “Mucca” Bolta and tattoo artist Loz joined "Florida Matters Live & Local" to talk about tattooing careers, the Lucky Supply Tattoo Museum in Largo, and building custom tattoo machines, which are often called tattoo guns. That term is disliked by many tattoo artists.
The interview below was edited for clarity and brevity.
Mucca, how long have you owned Ink Fink?
Mucca: I've had it for about 17 years. This is our second location, and just been tattooing for about 26 years in the Tampa Bay area.
How did you get started?
Mucca: I've always been into artwork, drawing and painting. So when I was in high school, just went to a tattoo convention, really fell in love with it. Always liked tattooing and just got an apprenticeship and just started from there.
Is that a common way to get into it, with an apprenticeship?
Mucca: That's how it used to be, that's how it should be with any kind of trait that you're gonna do, get an apprenticeship, work under somebody that's been doing it for years. That's the best way to do it, hands-on, learn all the techniques and everything that goes along with it.
So you do you think of it as a trade more than an art form? Is it a combination of both?
Mucca: It's both. It's a lifestyle. It's more than just artwork.
And what about yourself, Loz, how did you get into tattooing? How long have you been involved?
Loz: I got into it when I was 15, and I actually got my apprenticeship through Mucca when I turned 18.
How old are you now?
Loz: 32.
Watch: Briana Jackson interviews tattoo artist Lucky Loz for Arts Axis Florida
Was there ever a point where you're like, “what am I doing here? I should be doing something else, going to law school” or something?”
Loz: No, I picked out tattoos literally when I was in high school, and that was it. I just kind of stuck to that.
How old were you when you got your first tattoo?
Loz: 14. I did it myself, though. I was messing around and yeah, totally not the way to go about it. So I figured out later on, the right way to do it is to get a mentor. So I started getting tattooed by Mucca. And then, eventually, I asked him, would he take me on? And he did.
What was your first tattoo of?
Loz: It was like a little kanji symbol, something I found on the internet and I thought it was cool. I put it on my leg so nobody could see it.
And then you did it and thought, “This is quite hard, I should figure out what I need to be doing?”
Loz: Yeah, man, the tattoo actually fell out completely. So I ended up hearing about Mucca, and I actually saw him in some magazines, and I just thought it was really cool. And I was like, “Wow, this guy's local, and I want to go meet him,” and here we are now.
Mucca, what about you? How old were you when you got your first tattoo?
Mucca: I was about 16. I got it professionally done though. I went with my parents and they signed all the paperwork.
Did your parents have tattoos?
Mucca: They have a couple. They're not heavily tattooed like I am. I'm probably the most heavily tattooed person in the family and all my friends. But everybody has a couple. Everybody nowadays has a couple tattoos, at least three or four.
So it wasn't a huge conversation to persuade them?
Mucca: I was a good child and was into artwork. So they realized it was going to be something that I was gonna do in the long run.
Do you find people coming in, and you sometimes have to ask them, “Are you sure you really want this at this time?” Is there some kind of talking them, either through it, or maybe saying, “think about it and come back when you're ready?”
Mucca: I would say it's 50/50. A lot of people have already thought about it. They looked at their phone, already did all their research. They already know what they want to get. Nowadays, I feel like people just want to come in and get a tattoo, no matter what, really, they just want to be just want to be part of it. They just want to get something with their friends. Just want to get a tattoo and just be part of the culture.
There's a tattoo museum as well, right?
Loz: I work at a tattoo museum. So I'm either there, I’m at Ink Fink. I make tattoo machines there, and I do the history side of it as well.
Can you explain what you're holding?
Loz: I actually made this machine in 2024. It's what you would typically see in a tattoo shop, at least back in the day. It's a stainless steel setup, and then you just have your needle, and that's it. It hooks up here, and it runs, and that makes the loud noise.
What's the appeal of building your own versus just buying them off the shelf?
Loz: It's just being a part of the tattoo culture completely. My whole goal is to fully immerse myself as much as possible into tattooing as a whole, not just doing it or just showing off what I could show off on the internet.
Tell me more about the tattoo museum. So what goes on there?
Loz: It's a full collection of 70,000 pieces, and it dates back to the early 1900s, maybe a little bit earlier, but it doesn't focus on that too much. We have stuff from Sailor Jerry, from Charlie Wagner, just a bunch of notable names. And tattooing that helped mold what it is today.
Are they local to Florida?
Loz: It's a worldwide collection. It's a very big deal.
Tattooing is probably, in some ways, become a lot more kind of democratized, right? It's way more common, I think now, to see people with tattoos.
Loz: Yeah, it's extremely common. But that's how it goes. People get curious, and I think that's just as natural as getting, wanting the tattoo, is just the curiosity and seeing what it's about. But I think tattooing is a little bit deeper than what people think it is. There's a whole side of it that, in a subculture, that I think your average person wouldn't understand that even does have a small tattoo.
Mucca, tell me more about the employees at your shop, because I understand they've got ties to the first tattoo training in Florida. Can you talk about that?
Mucca: The place that I learned tattooing, Artistic Armor, they were the first ones to get tattooing legalized here in Tampa. So that's where I learned, got my apprenticeship through them, and just learned the trade. Everything I learned from them just basically washed off to me and the other employees that I got working for me.
When you say legalized, what do you mean by that?
Mucca: At one point (the 1908s), tattooing was illegal in Florida.
Do you know why it was not legal?
Loz: It probably just has something to do with health and sanitation. At a point, getting a tattoo was so taboo that you don't think about all the repercussions that come from somebody who's not professional. So it was banned at some point. That's kind of across the board for the U.S. At some point, if you can't manage disease, then just get rid of it. We don't need it anyway, right?
I'm sure you've done thousands of tattoos, right? So what's it like to, and how often do you see somebody that you've tattooed, sort of just wander by. Is that pretty common?
Mucca: Every time we go out, we know somebody that I've tattooed, can't go nowhere just to relax a little bit. Everybody wants to tell you their tattoo fantasy or their next tattoo they want to get. But it all comes with the territory.
What's it like seeing a tattoo of yours in the wild?
Mucca: It’s pretty cool. Sometimes I look at them, and I'm like, “Oh, that’s a pretty cool tattoo,” and then I’m like, “Oh, I’m the one who did it.”
What about you, Loz, what do you think when you see somebody wearing one of your artworks?
Loz: That's pretty sick, man. It's a really good privilege. It's a great privilege. It's a blessing, definitely, to be able to see my artwork walking around and they're enjoying it, or if I see them getting a compliment, and it's like, “I'm responsible for that.”
You can listen to the full interview with Ink Fink owner Matthew Damucca “Mucca” Bolta and tattoo artist Loz in the media player above. This story was compiled from an interview by Matthew Peddie for "Florida Matters Live & Local." You can listen to the full episode here.
