HomeMr. DomoMs. TamiMs ShawnaMr TrampBig Bud YatesCoty Nix 
Mr.Psycho 13Tattoo PhotosAPPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM

                   BIG BUD YATES  
     OLD SCHOOL TATTOOIST  FROM
                 AMARILLO, TEXAStext.
 I made a Road Trip to Texas in March of '83 to work alone side Big Bud Yates in Amarillo, Texas. Big Bud was an Old School Tattooer from Kentucky that had worked all over the country from Kentucky to Colorado to Texas. He owned a small Construction Company and operated a Tattoo Studio he built onto his house.  He was some what of a Drinking Man, loved his Lord Calvert. Working out of a nice little studio he had built onto his house that had two work stations that raised up off the main floor just a little.  I can still see Big Bud sitting there with his glass of Lord Calvert in one hand, shirt unbuttoned down the front, that big Rattle Snake Tattoo on his big pot belly that never really covered up the home made Tattoo that said "Big Bud".  I'm sure that Tattoo was done by one of his sons to cover up the old one. Big Bud had a real bad case of dibetes and the Doctors where wanting to remove his legs to save his life, but he wouldn't let them. At the time I was there he was having a on going name calling fight with another Tattooer in Amarillo by the name of Ziggie or something like that. I tried to stay out of it, but being his friend I always saw it the way he did. I Never met that Ziggie fellow, but I still think like Big Bud, and when he said the man was a bum, I believed him. He told me that his son Danny was about to be released from prison and might be coming down to work with us. But I never got to meet him if he did, as I had to leave Texas after a little run in with the Law. I contacted one of his sons about ten years ago and told him about me working with his father. In the summer of 2004 Uncle Bud Yates had been visiting his family in Kentucky when he stopped by my studio on his way back home to Colorado ,to visit with me. It was amazing how much he looked and talked like his father. We had a nice long talk about his Dad and my time spent working with him.  I was shocked to here a few years later that his son, Tattoo Artist Uncle Bud Yates was killed in a motorcycle crash out West. After telling all these old stories of my many years of traveling and working in shops from St. Louis to New Orleans, all over Alabama, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee   Texas, Colorado. It became clear that I may just be the best kept secret in the World of Tattooing.  And that got me to thinking about setting the record straight. After owning over 7 different Tattoo Studios in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and many years of running the roads. I gave up the life of a gyspy tattooer and settled down in Humboldt, Tenn.
If your ever in my neck of the woods stop by my shop and hear my story first hand         ........                 Look For The Book I Plan To Write One Day            .......
Mr. Domo 1969