How rocker Bret Michaels helped an Atlantic Highlands tattoo artist turn his life around
ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS - Growing up in Neptune, Tony Rodriguez experienced some of life’s hardest knocks. But with a combination of creativity, optimism and opportunity, the entrepreneur and owner of Tattoo Tony’s Under My Skin Tattoo Studio in Atlantic Highlands has become one of the area’s most well-known tattoo artists and is renowned for helping clients express themselves through body art.
A child of divorce, “my mother left me and my sister when I was 11,” said Rodriguez, 49, an Atlantic Highlands resident. “My dad did the best he could to make money and raise us, but I’ve basically been on my own since I was 13.”
To bring in a few dollars of his own, the industrious teen pursued a local opportunity.
“There was a tattoo shop called Gene’s Body Art World around the corner from us in Asbury Park and I went there to see if I could help straighten up or clean the floors to make money,” he said. “I wound up staying there for 10 years and ultimately became a tattoo artist.”
Over the next decade, “I worked at Gene’s on and off as well as at other locations in the Shore area,” Rodriguez said. “Gene taught a lot of people who are in the business today and at one point he had five shops throughout Monmouth and Ocean County. I helped him run his Asbury Park shop and assisted him in opening his Long Branch location.”
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By his early-to-mid 20s, however, Rodriguez found himself in the throes of drug addiction. He moved to Tennessee and then Florida, “but I came back to New Jersey in 2001 and went to work at First Class in Long Branch, a tattoo shop owned by a friend of mine, and then opened my own shop, Dark City, in Asbury Park in 2002/2003,” he said.
Though still addicted, Rodriguez’s work caught the eye of musician Bret Michaels, lead singer of popular rock band Poison, and their friendship changed the course of Rodriguez’s life and career.
“Around 2003, I got a call from Bret’s management that Bret wanted to get tattooed by me,” Rodriguez said. Over the course of numerous meetings, Rodriguez tattooed several of the band’s security guards and all of the band members, though not Michaels.
“About six months later, however, his bouncer contacted me and said that Bret was finally ready,” Rodriguez said. “I looked sick from all of the drugs I was doing and as I tattooed him on his tour bus, he said to me, ‘Tony, you can either stay here and die or come with me,’” Rodriguez recalled. “I’d been fighting my demons and ended up going on the road with Bret Michaels for 14 years, touring with him from coast to coast as his head of security and handler and I even made cameos on reality shows he did, including 'Life as I Know It' and 'Celebrity Apprentice.'”
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Most importantly, Rodriguez said, “he showed me a new way of life and taught me how to be a businessman.”
Thanks to that positive influence, Rodriguez got clean in 2004 and decided to open a new shop, Tattoo Tony’s Under My Skin Tattoo Studio, several years later. Though he evaluated spaces in several different towns, “the best thing I ever did was to locate it in Atlantic Highlands,“ he said of the 1,500-square-foot shop he launched in January 2008, which he's since expanded to double its original size.
'My tattoos tell my story'
Nearly 15 years later — and sporting the 12-by-2-foot “Tattoos” sign on the front of his building that originally hung outside of Gene’s Body Art World, a relic he purchased as an homage to his former mentor after his passing — “I do tattoos and piercings,” Rodriguez said.
“Some artists specialize in traditional tattoos (such as sailor-themed ones) while others do portraits, dramatic neo-traditional tattoos, black and gray or color styles, etc., but I don’t hold myself to one particular style,” he said. “I do everything.
“When I first started out, I never thought we’d see dedicated tattoo shows on TV or YouTube, but the tattoo industry has exploded because the art form is so expressive,” said Rodriguez, who noted that the tattoos covering 90% of his body tell his life story. “Some people have photo albums, but my tattoos tell my story; I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing with each tattoo.”
Given the current popularity of tattoos — one study estimates that nearly half of all Americans under age 40 have at least one tattoo — “we charge a minimum of $100 for basic, simple tattoos, such as a script name, which takes anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes,” Rodriguez said of the all-custom artwork he and fellow tattoo artist RJ Higgins perform in his shop.
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“Tattoo sleeves and large and/or intricate back pieces can take hundreds of hours over numerous sessions and can get up into the thousands of dollars. Among our other services, we can cover up tattoos, and we also do piercings of the ears, nose, bellybutton, tongue, and nipples,” he said. “We charge $80 for a standard piercing and it’s a pretty quick process.”
In September 2019, Rodriguez started another small business called Papo Sticker Co., through which he offers stickers, embroidery and direct-to-garment printing; he also sews his own pillows, curtains and other linens and home décor. “I’m an artist through and through and like to have my hand in a lot of things,” he explained.
Customers from bikers to priests
Rodriguez said that the sky’s the limit when it comes to today’s tattoo concepts.
“Years ago, you’d pick a design off the wall, but today people come in with images from the internet or in their mind that they want you to work with,” he said. “As a result, there’s no one ‘hot’ tattoo or set theme — from a skull or a religious icon to something floral, a Polynesian style, or something else, it’s whatever the person wants and I love that every day is different. People come in with a concept and we bring that vision to reality.”
Like it did 50 years ago, "the process still involves needles, ink, a machine and someone with the knowledge to use them,” Rodriguez said.
But today, the technology has advanced. “It’s essentially an operation in which we’re cutting open the skin and pushing ink under it,” he said, “but the inks are now all pre-sterilized and the tools and machines we use are smaller and more precise.”
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At the same time, he noted that his extensive client base has changed over the years. “Thirty years ago, people who came in for tattoos were mostly bikers, people in the military, and ‘bad boys,’” he said. “Today, it’s doctors, lawyers, tons of women and even priests.”
While tattoo outlets abound in the Shore area, “we’re very personable at our shop,” Rodriguez said of his studio’s competitive edge. “We’re good artists, but we also truly go out of our way to make our clients feel comfortable and create what they want.”
Ultimately, he said, “tattoos are a way to express yourself and are something you’ll carry to the day you die. Regardless of all of the material stuff you may have, a tattoo is the only thing you’ll take with you at the end.”
Looking ahead, Rodriguez said, “I love what I do and I hope to keep the shop going and maybe someday hand it over to my teenage son Ray, who’s an artist.”
For now, though, “I love that I’m able to help someone create a memory that will last a lifetime,” he said of his favorite part of his job. “We give them something they can’t buy on Amazon. It’s one of a kind.”
Tattoo Tony’s Under My Skin Tattoo Studio
Location: 73 Memorial Parkway, Atlantic Highlands
Phone: 732-872-4092
Owner: Tony Rodriguez
Opened: 2008
Website:www.undermyskintat2.com
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Under My Skin Atlantic Highlands tattoo shop: How Bret Michaels helped
