Bret Smith:
I would live in a box before I quit tattooing. I don't know, it taught me everything I need to know about society.
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Annie Venerable:
Can you give me an example?
Bret Smith:
Nobody is who they say they are. When it actually comes to the physical pain, you really get to see a lot of what that person's inner workings are. But it's beautiful because then I get a whole 'nother outlook or another perspective of how somebody else sees all this madness.
Annie Venerable:
You want to know an easy way to make your social media feed blow up? It's simple. Post one simple question. You want to get a tattoo, and where should you go? Because the truth is, with so many amazing shops and artists in the Greater Cincinnati area, that question's almost impossible to answer. But today we're at Illuminaut Tattoo talking with a great artist. His name is Bret Smith, here in the absolutely adorable river city of Ludlow, Kentucky, to talk tattoos. And to make things even more interesting, Bret's going to be tattooing me today. I'm Agent Annie with Pivot Realty Group. Let's go get tattooed.
Bret Smith:
I think Ludlow ultimately is a time capsule. It's very old and has a lot of soul. There's something really beautiful about working in a little tiny town and a lot of the town doesn't even know. They don't even know what they have.
Annie Venerable:
So talk to me about tattooing. When did you get started? What did you do before? What led you to this path?
Bret Smith:
What I did before? I'm 30 years old, and I've been tattooing for-
Annie Venerable:
Not much.
Bret Smith:
Yeah, I've been tattooing for 10 years, but I did landscaping from age 14 to 20. Then in the winters I would usually manage a shoe store in the mall, you know what I mean? I did any job that I could to make any money, but it was all because I grew up skateboarding. Skateboarding was everything. I think a lot of that punk, "I'm going to do it my way and there really isn't anything anybody can do to stop that." I really loved that about it. And then getting into tattooing, obviously seeing all the punk kids with good or bad tats. Everybody goes into getting a tattoo thinking of what it means to them, what it symbolizes, and all that stuff changes because you change. If I get a rose now, obviously the look of it is going to change by the time I'm 100 years old. But what that rose means to me, because it has lived through everything I have lived through, it's gone through every up and down and it's still there. Right?
Annie Venerable:
I'm sure you do, or maybe it just comes to you at certain times, where you think my artwork lives on people forever.
Bret Smith:
Yes, but it dies with people as well. I know everybody had a pretty crazy pandemic for one reason or another. The pandemic shutdown was the first time I'd been without a job since I was 14. I also had lost a few good clients and friends that I had done extensive tattooing on. It makes you rethink what you're doing. Can I go to my own grave knowing that I tried my best for every tattoo so that person can feel a little bit more comfortable in their own skin for one more second?
