Growing up I was never exposed to tattoos or the tattoo world. There were shops near where I lived, including the famous Carl "Smokey" Nightengale, but I can only recall seeing one tattoo on an aquaintence of my dads and it was a rather vauge childhood memory.

In the later part of the 70's is when I got my first tattoo, a dot on my wrist done by  brother Butch with needle, thread and india ink. It didn't take long till I was in Johnny and Joes in Washington DC and JC Fly's, over an adult book store in Alexandria Va adding my first shop quality pieces.

After moving to Florida and bouncing around till I stopped for awhiile in Gainesville where I tried my hand at doing tattoos instead of just getting them.  I stayed in Florida long enough to get a steady hand before moving to Phoenix Az. After a few months of inking out of my house a local shop offered me a position. The Artist, known as Wiley Coyote taught me a great deal about tattooing.

From Arizona I spent four years in San Diego before making my first trip to Sturgis.I bought an original Sturgis school bus that year and spent 5 years traveling the eastern US tattooing at Daytona, Bean Blossum Boogey, Mad Hatters Tea Party and many other venues as well as regular stops at friends houses. Each August I would be back in Sturgis.

In the early 90's I flew to upstate NY to do a guest spot at a shop and it was there I met future wife Lynn. We opened the Central NY Tattoo Co in 93, growing from a 400 sq ft shop to a 2200 sq ft shop. In 2001, having had enough of the snow, we sold all our property in NY and moved to Florida.

I worked in a shop there for a year but the illegal activities and egos of the owners not to mention the dishonesty caused me to open ACES Tattoo Co in Vero Beach. This shop grew in clientel untill 2006 when my wife and I wanted a change of season, so I closed the shop, we sold our intetests and bought our little corner of the world in Chickamauge Ga.

I did a brief stint in a shop in No Ga, but they were into head games and high prices instead of quality tattooing so I quit and opened ACE's Ft O Tattoo Co. We are a small shop to keep expenses low and pass the savings onto the customers. We will honor some discount cupons from other local tattoo shops.