Season 1 kicked off in 2012, and taking home the $100,000 prize money was Shane O’Neill, a fixture in the tattooing scene of the Northeast. According to The Cinemaholic, O’Neill owned two shops at the time he appeared on the show. Did things change? Yes, and no.
O’Neill has taken his talents on the road, and in addition to continuing to run his Delaware shop, he’s also got gigs going as a guest tattooist at other shops, like Staten Island’s Bullseye Tattoo. He doesn’t have to travel, though: According to Delaware Online, his work is so in demand that clients will travel for hours to sit in the chair.
He spoke with them in 2022, and talked a little bit about how exhausting it had been: “Every day was like a minimum 18-hour day. There were like three days I didn’t get to go to bed at all.” It was worth it, though, and here’s the thing: When he started off on his career path, “I had no interest in tattooing,” he said. “I had a couple tattoos, my friends had tattoos — but no interest.”
Fortunately for clients — who have travelled from as far away as London, England — he changed his mind just a few days into a week-long test run at a tattoo shop, years ago. Now, anyone interested in booking an appointment will have to be cool with waiting for up to two and a half years for an opening.
