Big Ten Questions with Gypsy Jill

By Mary Gardner

Gypsy Jill was barely a teenager when she moved with her parents to the Ivory Coast of West Africa. It was an incredible opportunity for an artistic young girl to be exposed to the lavish and naturalistic body art produced by African craftsmen. After two years, Jill returned to the States and began her quest to become a tattooist. “I was surprised to find that tattooing was reserved for a class of outlaws,” she recalls. “That didn’t quite fit the image I had in mind for myself.” And for a young woman born Jill Greenburg, there weren’t any other Jewish tattoo artists around who could serve as role models. In 1983, Jill began a short-lived apprenticeship with Peter Tat2 Poulos. “Peter was killed by an employee in the first year of my apprenticeship,” says Jill. But the shop survived and Jill’s relationship with it and its artists continued for the next seventeen years.

[portfolio_slideshow]

In the early ’80s, Jill was asked to tattoo swastikas. “My boss at the time and I agreed that the client had the right to get one and more, if they wanted. But not from me,” she adds. While refusing to tattoo swastikas, Jill discovered that many clients actually regretted sporting this Nazi symbol. Presented with a moral dilemma, Jill discovered a clever and kind solution: she offered to turn their ill-fated ink into something different by way of a free cover-up. This marked the beginning of a career choice to provide cover-ups on relatively secret areas of the body, places only the client and intimate partners would ever see. “Today,” says Jill, “I specialize in cover-ups of old tattoos, stretch marks and scars. It’s an honor.”

Sober since 1999, Gypsy Jill proudly takes responsibility for bringing 12-step meetings to the yearly National Tattoo Association conventions. “Five years ago I asked Flo Makofske if I could lead a meeting in my hotel room,” remembers Jill. Now that the original handful of recovering tattoo artists has multiplied, the once clandestine meeting is scheduled each year, immediately following the pre-event inspection.

Whenever the name Gypy Jill is mentioned, no matter what coast you’re on, people who have been in the business a few years always speak highly of her as an artist and a respected member of the tattoo community. And after our in-depth interview, I, too, have joined the ranks of her admirers.

1. What is your favorite word? Awesome.

2. What is your least favorite word? Pathetic.

3. Whom do you most admire? Golda Meir.

4. What is your greatest accomplishment? My sobriety.

5. If you were not a tattoo artist, what would you be? A librarian.

6. What would you say to someone who wants to become a tattoo artist? I wouldn’t talk, I’d listen.

7. What is the most important part of your job? The consultation.

8. What is your least favorite part of tattooing? Touching people I don’t like.

9. What do you do to relax? I watch Looney Tunes.

10. What is your most prized possession? The incredible wedding ring given me by my husband, Charles.

Gypsy Jill

American Beauty Tattoo

11810 NE Eighth Street

Bellevue, Washington 98005

Email: 2009@gypsyjill.com

Website: womenstattooforum.com

Note: Sadly, soon after this interview was published, Gypsy Jill succumbed to complications from an inoperable brain tumor and passed in December of 2009.

Contact Mary Gardner at mary@tattooroadtrip.com.