Gill Montie Main
Gill Montie (born in Traverse City, Michigan, but grew up in the San Fernando Valley, USA) Gill “the drill” Montie is a who’s who in tattoo artist legends, having traveled across the nation, tattooing all over the world. He has opened several tattoo parlors including the famous Gill Montie’s Tattoo on Sunset Blvd, and founded the world renowned Inkslinger’s Ball.
Beginnings
He first became interested in tattoos and began poking them in by hand. “I’d basically taking some kind of instrument– a Popsicle stick or a pin– and string a needle to it. You put a little ink on, and poke it in.” At sixteen he was already tattooing all the neighborhood kids on the block. At eighteen he joined the Marine Corp’s, and got his first professional tattoo. “It was from Diamond Tooth Smittie in North Carolina. I was stationed in Camp Lejeune, so I went over there and got it.” As soon as he got out in 1974 and started his apprenticeship in Los Angeles with the wild and crazy Doc Dog in the San Fernando Valley. “He was a nut. He was the first guy to open up a tattoo shop in the valley, on the corner of Van Nuys and Victory.” “The new shop was met with strong resentment from the community. Doc Dog wasn’t a known tattooer; he was in and out of prison. There was always a fight, and everyone who worked there was a hood. It was right next to a massage parlor, and there was a hole in the back of the tattoo shop that led right through to the massage parlor. It was crazy times.” Not the best learning spot “It wasn’t necessarily about doing great tattoos, you just wanted to be accepted by these fellows. But to be one of those characters, you needed road miles, you needed experiences.”
After his son was born, Gill got a job as a janitor at a Lakeview High School in Reno and tried to settle down. “I was getting a salary, but I couldn’t stay away from tattooing, and I started poking them in by hand again. That’s when I realized tattooing was in my blood.” He met Mike LeCure who was in a motorcycle gang, and owned a tattoo place in Reno so Gill stayed with him for a while before heading up north to Portland Oregon, where he ran a tattoo shop next to a radiator shop.
He then went to Las Vegas to work with Doc Dog who had opened the only tattoo place on the strip. He stayed there a few years before heading back to Oregon to open up his own little tattoo shop.
Living in an old trailer house in a trailer park called Applegate he eventually landed back in Vegas with Dog in the late 70’s where they both got hooked on speed. “We’d stay awake for three weeks at a time, tattooing. It was the life.” Eventually realizing he needed to clean up his act. “In 1980 I left there and went out to Hutchinson Kansas. I heard it was a good place to put weight back on. I was gonna make Kansas the tattoo capital of the world. I was full of myself at the time.”
Gill and Effe Craig, whom he had met in Vegas got into business together. “He was the local hoodlum in Kansas, and me and him would run around town in his ‘62 Impala, lowered, wearing trench coats, cowboy boots, and sunglasses. They were used to Craig but they weren’t used to the new skinny guy.” “We owned a couple of bars, he was the chef and I was the bad dishwasher. But everything we did was fueled through tattooing.” They started doing motorcycle rallies in Sturgis and Daytona. “Back in those times there was no tattoo magazines, there was no culture, so we started doing these motorcycle rallies with Crazy Ace, Randy Adams, and all the guys on the motorcycle circuit.” Not having a shop, Gill had to rough it with the bikers. “The first time I tattooed in Sturgis, it was in an alley behind a gas station tattooing a drunk standing up.”
By chance a year later a photographer named Billy Tinney was working on a magazine shoot. He was taking pictures of bikers and could not help but notice all the tattoos he was shooting. People seeing the magagzine noticed them too and wanted more. They later had to add a tattoo section. This gave way later to the first tattoo magazine.
Now that tattooing is socially acceptable, Gill reflects on how Hollywood helped bring tattoos into the mainstream. “When I first got to Hollywood it was all about the big hair and the atmosphere was electric. I had this shop on Sunset Boulevard across from Viper Room between the Whisky-A-Go-Go and Tower Records.” With a prime location like this, Gill quickly gained a large celebrity fan base. “Fred Saunders toured with Motley Crue, and I did all the Poison guys. The more public exposure the better,” explains Gill. “When your heroes are tattooed, you want to get ‘em too. It was the beginning of MTV, so it really helped for people to see these rock stars all tatted up. Rosanne Barr, the domestic goddess, made it OK for girls to get tattoos. I put a lot of tattoos on Roseanne.”
Gill on Inkslinger’s Ball “I wanted to throw an unconventional convention, a kind of pirates ball, so we threw a big party at The Central, which is now the Viper Room, with Chucky Rice and the Goddamn Liars, and it was huge. We had people from all over the country. The next time, we moved it to the Troubadour, and we’d have big bands playing like Poison. We finally ran out of room and moved it to the World Famous Palladium where it’s been for fourteen years.” It is now produced by Fred and Sherie Rose with Gill at the tattoo helm.
His son, Shane, is a very well-esteemed artist at Absolute Tattoo in San Diego, California. His daughter, Sheila, just returned recently from working in Amsterdam with Tycho Veldhoen. Sheila and Tycho are also the proud parents of little Vincent. Tattooing has definitely been a big part of the Montie family, and hopefully this talent will be passed on to following generations.
Career
He has opened several tattoo parlors including the famous Gill Montie’s Tattoo on Sunset Blvd, and founded the world renowned Inkslinger’s Ball.
Gill Montie’s Tattoo Mania
601 Park St.
Beaumont, Texas 77701
409-838-2345
gillmonti@hotmail.com
Mr. Montie is best known for all the celebrities he has tattooed. Among them are Roseanne Barr, Tom Arnold, Johnny Depp, Eddy Van Halen, and Liza Manelli to name just a few.
Style
Some of his favorite are Ed Hardy, Doc Don, Zeke Owen, and Bob Shaw.
Gill Montie in Popular Culture
Being the founded the world renowned Inkslinger’s Ball.
“I’m probably the most famous tattoo artist…the most photographed, the most well known…”
Business Ventures
After many years of great success with his shop Tattoo Mania in West Hollywood, California he left it to work for someone else. The shop was really starting to wear him down, he went to Dallas where he did not have to worry about the business end allowing him to continue the work he loves without the other burdens that go along with owning your own business.
Honors
American Museum of Natural History, in their Body Art exhibit, has immortalized him there among the exhibits of other greats such as Lyle Tuttle and Don Ed Hardy.
Born, Traverse City, Mi. Dec. 18, 1954.I grew up between Detroit, Chicago, and Southern California. I became interested in Tattoos in 1969 and began pokeing them in by hand. I joined the Marine Corp’s in 1971 and got out in 1973. I started an apprenticeship in 1974 in So. Cal. with Doc Dog, and never turned back. I’ve Tattooed all over the world the last 30 yrs. and am now settled down in Beaumont, Texas. with Family and Friends.Gill Montie and Kevin Brady are now doing the Brady-Montie T-Shirt art line. Gill and Kevin worked in Hollywood together tattooing and share the same birth date.Find them at:
Gill Montie’s Tattoo Mania
601 Park St. Beaumont, Texas 77701
W.409-838-2345
Comments
There are 2 comments for this post.
Hay I just met Gill at Custom Ink in SA TX. He is Cool guy to hang out with.
Very impressive that this legand’s work was exhibited in the American Museum of Natural History Body Art exhibit. He definitely belongs in this tattoo bio!