
	ALBERT JEFFERS The Acid Baby by Mark Longenecker Photos courtesy of Albert Jeffers

Albert Jeffers is a quality Florida-style tattoo artist, well-known for his aquatic and Japanese themes. A top notch fisherman himself, Albert also tattoos many of the local fishermen in town. Among one of the most impressive aspects about Albert, though, is his website - Acidbaby.com. It's a website thats easy to navigate and really shows you Albert's love of tattooing. Back when the web was a baron waste land for tattoo related sites, Albert's site was up and running in the mid '90s. Albert is a computer whiz kid and has worked for numerous computer companies as well as being a tattoo artist. He has made quite a name himself on the web and is a well sought after South Florida tattoo artist.

So you are known as Jersey Jeff Jeffers right? Fellow Jersey Boyee...

Yeah, I don't miss that place at all, I like Florida. I grew up in Morristown, NJ. It's full of yuppies. I only like to go back that way for Christmas.

So did you hang out in New York City a lot?

Any chance I could get outta town, I would. I would always hang out in the village in NY a lot.

Is that what got you into the NY punk scene?

Oh yeah, my first tattoo was Black Flag stripes that I hand poked into myself back in '89. I got them covered up and I really regret that now. I will never cover up another tattoo on my body. That punk tattoo connected me to being 13.

So, have you always been an artist?

Yeah, kind of. I know I have always had a mechanical inclination. When I was a kid, I took the TV apart and put it back together.

Did you graduate high school?

No, I dropped out to work in an art gallery. My buddy Johnny Cosmo owned six galleries. He has been like a father to me. I learned a lot about that industry and thought I might want to be a part of it one day, but it's all bullshit. It has nothing to do with art, and everything to do with money.

What got you into tattooing?

Back in '89, I bought a copy of Don Ed Hardy's Tattoo Time. I gotta dragon out of the book tattooed on me by Mike McCabe. I just kept going back for more and more.

So how did you learn? Did you get an apprenticeship?

I taught myself by trial and error from about '89 to '94. I was not mature enough to handle an apprenticeship. I figured I would keep at it 'till I was good enough to get a job.

So what brought you to sunny Florida, that job?

No, I came down to work at an art gallery, I just wanted to get the hell outta Jersey. One night in Miami, I met Lou Sciberras and he offered me a job. He opened the door to the tattoo world for me. I really feel like I will be in his debt forever now.

There you got to work along side of some of the old school Tattoos By Lou crew.

Yeah, Emerson Forth, Albert Scambotti, Luiz Segato, Morgan Brown, Adam and Seth Ciferri, Jeff Whitehead, Troy Lane, and Mike Harpool.

Seems to me that most of the good tattoo artists in South Florida have worked at Tattoos By Lou at one time.

That shop really put South Florida on the map. I don't think we would have the quality of the artists down here if it wasn't for Lou's influence. All the good tattoo artists from all over world wanted to come party with Lou in South Beach, Miami.

Where did you get your web name Acidbaby from?

Oh, thats just an old joke between some friends of mine. We were all conceived in the late '60s from our hippy parents.

You were one of the first tattoo sites on the web, right?

I started it back in the day, when there was nothing. Then, I remember when Seth Ciferri got his site up, Readstreettattoo.com. His forum has really seemed to catch on.

Yes, I would have to say that is the central hub for all the tattoo artist web heads. It's almost as cool as Prickmag.net and Bangbus.com.

Friday Jul 01, 2005

INKEDblog Interviews Albert Jeffers

Being an old school punk rocker myself, my ears perked up upon hearing the story of Albert Jeffers’ first tattoo. The tattoo was the logo for the seminal band, Black Flag: four black bars slightly askew. With punk rock providing the soundtrack for most of my teen years, it was a story I had heard from different people over the years. While the tattoos always vary and the circumstances always vary, etching the name of a band or loved one on youthful skin as a teenage rite of passage is always entertaining. Although I managed to escape the teen marks of a sewing needle and India ink, I always feel a connection with those who know that time.

Albert shed his home-made tattoo equipment as he graduated into the consummate professional tattooist he is today. By this point, his interests extend far beyond punk rock. Albert’s quest to expand his talents reaches farther than just the ink he lays on people. His lust and passion for life seem to guide his outlook and path.

Known for his American and Japanese water themes, Albert has been 'dragging animals out of the sea and navigating bodies of water" since his pre-teen years. One look at his work and you can tell he speaks from decades of experience, not research.... Logan Hicks

For more information about Albert, please visit his website at: http://www.acidbaby.com

INKEDblog: How'd you first get into tattooing?

Albert: I grew up around fine art and music. My Mom was a Classical and Spanish guitarist in addition to her chosen profession (PhD psychoanalyst) as well as a prolific oil painter. Most members of my family have been into either painting or drawing at one time or another. I was working as a picture framer in New York City while part of the punk rock scene there in the 80’s. That’s when and where tattooing really began to blow up on the East Coast. I am primarily self-taught, but after 4 years of tattooing on my own, Lou Sciberras, Ken Cameron and the rest of the staff at Tattoos by Lou on South Beach in Miami, Florida turned me on to more professional techniques.

INKEDblog: What's the strangest request you've ever had for a tattoo?

Albert: Customers ask me this question all the time and I usually get the idea that they are looking for something titillating, like genital tattoos and I don’t really do much of that type of novelty tattooing. I work in a very personal medium; at my best I am trying to pull something out of a clients head and make an image of it. Some of it is very strange, but it all makes sense from client to client

INKEDblog: What makes a tattoo good?

Albert: First and foremost, good technique. Solid lines, bright colors with smooth transitions from color to color and solid bold black shading. Secondly a good drawing that is readable or at least aesthetically pleasing to an outside party (a viewer) and is placed well on the body. Third is what does the tattoo say about the wearer? Too many tattoos are continually put on generically without a thought to meaning or personality. Most people have a more customized car than a customized tattoo.

INKEDblog: What are the best and worst things about being a tattoo artist?

Albert: I like working closely with people. Its nice to do a large complex drawing and have a customer OK it with a statement like “You read my mind”. It’s also nice to do the little stuff and make people so happy with something simple. I think it is empowering to them and changes their self image in a good way. The worst thing is the lack of benefits and paying my own taxes.

INKEDblog: Describe your favorite tattoo of all time?

Albert: I like a lot of Japanese work. My favorite story about my own tattoos is one I tell clients all the time. Usually when they talk about teenagers who hand poke their own tattoos. In 1983 My best friend, myself and our girlfriends all decided we were going to have me hand poke tattoos on all of us. I was 13 at the time. We did it in my living room with India ink and a sewing needle. I did this Black Flag symbol on myself, I believe even before Henry Rollins was in the band. It’s so funny punk rock made a full circle and is popular again. Anyway, one of my mentors suggested I cover it up with something he thought was more aesthetically pleasing in 1988, so I did. I regret it so much. That is now my favorite tattoo. That moment in time is very precious to me and I wish I still had the memento. It reminds me that tattoos have a deeper meaning than just an image. That sometimes, no matter how crude, maybe people should not give in to social pressure just because someone else does not understand their choice in imagery or the context of an image.

INKEDblog: What's your thoughts on Old School vs. New School styles?

Albert: I'm a traditionalist to a certain point. I think its great to put twists into the old stuff to keep it new, but I do believe it should come from an educated standpoint. Picasso did not start out with Cubism. He learned the traditional methods of classical painting first and that is what makes him and other modern artists so important; they could paint a subject true to life. It really bothers me when I see these children on the lifestyle section of the newspaper who do cubist paintings and the public calls them the next Picasso. They can’t be the next Picasso because they are not abandoning classical art for a new medium. They are just blindly jumping into a medium with a lack of substance.