This page will show you to some of the articles that have been written about us over the years. We have done charity auctions for our work and have done marathon tattooing for childrens causes and hospital benifits. We are very active in the community with not just giving our services to wanting customer but also to the needy in the many ways we volenteer our time. We love animals and take a large part in the wildlife refuge in caring for hurt and needing ones. We are proud owners of of some of the most wonderful creatures on earth, our own loving pets. You will read about some of our tattooing endeavors as well as some of our "outside" efforts as well. Please read along and learn our many facets as we aren't just a simple tattoo parlor any more.
Wild Bill.
| Kim's News | Van Story | Riches Ride | Sidecar Story | Panoz Half Moon Bay Story |
Think before you ink
Tattoos aren't for everyone -- including some people who have them
By Dan Vierria - The Sacramento Bee January 2, 2008
OK, so you considered the consequences, weighed the pros and cons, and you're still committed to the get-a-tattoo New Year's resolution. You're ready to be inked.
Or are you?
"Wild Bill" Hill, owner of Wild Bill's Tattoo in Roseville, says he abides by this rule: "I never wanted to be responsible for someone not being able to get a job because of a tattoo they can't hide." Hill, who employs 10 full-time artists and accommodated around 5,000 clients last year, won't tattoo hands, faces or necks. About 10 years ago, he says, he changed his longtime practice of not tattooing women on their arms. Times change.
Bill says “Now you can’t walk into a happening night spot with out seeing pretty girls with full sleeves or large coverage of tattoos on them. Most the time they have more than the guys their with“.
Its human nature to do things when your young with out thinking about what the long term ramifications will be. Lets face it, we have all done things on the spur of the moment when we were young that we regretted.
Over the years so many people have walked into my studio in Roseville and asked me to cover a tattoo they hate on their hands or knuckles with flesh colored ink. Even if it sounds great it just doesn’t work. The only reliable method is to have it removed with a laser. Done properly can take many sessions and be quite expensive. Costing 10 to 20 times the price of the tattoo.
Before needles perforate your epidermis, are you positive all the right questions have been asked, all the pertinent information has sunk in?
Sure, tattoos are acceptable today, but body art remains a polarizing form of self-expression. The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology reports that one-quarter of U.S. adults sport at least one tattoo. In the same study, 17 percent of those with tattoos were considering having them removed.
If your profession involves working with the public, give serious thought to where you're tattooed. If it can be seen while you're fully clothed, it may be a problem. Several law enforcement agencies, including the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, have ordered officers to cover up tattoos while on duty. Displaying tats has resulted in public complaints and fears that deputies with tattoos weren't really deputies, but felons impersonating deputies.
Mostly, only the bad guys displayed tattoos in days gone by. Outlaw bikers, prison inmates and street gangs are only a portion of today's tattooed population. If you're certain you want skin art, the following primer will help guide you through the experience.
TV and tattoos
For the uninked, TV reality shows like "Miami Ink" and "LA Ink" drop the veil of mystery about what goes on inside a tattoo shop. Like all reality shows, it's not all real, but it's close enough. Watch and learn.
Ami James of "Miami Ink" and Kat Von D of "LA Ink" are two good reasons the tattoo has reached a higher level of acceptance. The popular shows air on TLC, a basic cable channel, along with the newest spinoff, "London Ink." All focus on tattoo artists working in busy shops.
When Kat Von D left "Miami Ink" to open her own shop in "LA Ink," the premiere episode in August drew 3 million viewers, the most for a TLC series-opener in four years. That episode also was TLC's highest-rated premiere ever among people ages 18-34.
Who ya gonna call?
Ami and Kat are booked for months, so who
will do the honors? Judge tattoo artists by reputation or by seeing work
you really like. Ask about the artist. Visit tattoo shops and go through
the portfolios of each artist to find the style you seek. Check out shop
Web sites for images, artist bios and prices. Ask artists questions and watch
them work. You'll want to feel comfortable with somebody who is going to
leave a lasting impression on your skin.
Best time of year
Tattoo artists are busiest in the spring,
especially April and May. People like to be tattooed in spring so they
can show new looks in summer. Winter is a slower time for artists, and some
will
be more willing to negotiate prices.
How long does it take?
At an "in-and-out" shop, you can drop in without an appointment for a simple, small tattoo that can be applied in short order.
Shops that specialize in complex, detailed tattoos might want to discuss and plan the image with clients, sometimes over a couple of sessions before going under the needle.
Modern Body artist Alfredo Matta says the midtown shop works with clients to design unique, personal tattoos.
"They tell us what they want and we design it," he says. "They're involved with the artist and the design. We're mostly appointment only." Kevin Leary, an artist at Royal Peacock Tattoo, also in midtown, says he's already spent 30 hours on a single tattoo. "I figure about another 10 hours before it's done," he says. A big, detailed tattoo, say over the entire back, can require sessions spread out over a year or more. Session payments are spread out, too, which brings us to …
How much does it cost?
Like getting an estimate from a
home-remodeling contractor, the money you'll pay for a tattoo varies. A little
tattoo, say a red heart, may cost $50 to $80, but large, detailed tattoos
often exceed $1,000 and are done over several sessions. An entire-back tattoo
done by a top professional and in great detail may run $3,000.
Wild Bill says. "Good tattoos aren't cheap, and cheap tattoos aren't good." A top tattoo artist can charge and get $125 to $150 an hour, sometimes more. Check the shop's Web site and sample some of the fee structures.
Big or small?
Generally, tattoo artists prefer
to "go big" for more detail and impact (and money). On the other hand, the American Society for Dermatological Surgery recommends smaller tattoos "with two or three colors" because they're easier to remove and conceal.
No drinkin' and inkin'
Many tattoo shops have a "No Drunks" sign prominently displayed. People under the influence of alcohol and other mind-altering substances are prone to making poor decisions, including demanding a tattoo.
Wayne's Tattoo Studio in San Bruno explains its policy like this on its Web site: "No drunks or druggies, and we prefer that people bathe regularly."
Is the tattoo trend fading?
Nothing points to a decline,
but if there's one thing certain about pop culture, it's always evolving,
seeking out fresh ingredients for its next entree. "It appears tattoos are still really popular," says Jesse Kavadlo, an assistant professor at Maryville University in St. Louis who lectures and writes about pop culture. "What might be waning is the stigma attached to it, as more and more people in power are getting tattoos."
Removing tattoos
Tattoos should be considered
permanent, which is why the decision to be tattooed is so important. There
are methods to fade, hide, sometimes obliterate tattoos, but they're costly,
painful and time-consuming. Tattoo removal by laser – the most common treatment – depends on size and color scheme. The laser beam breaks the pigment into small particles that eventually fade away.
Cosmeticsurgery.com says that making a small, single-color tattoo disappear might take just two sessions at $100 per session. Larger, multicolored tats could cost you $500 per treatment, and may involve additional costs, depending on where the tattoo is located and whether you'll need anesthesia.
"Yellow is the most difficult color," says Dr. Roy Geronemus, director of the Laser & Skin Surgery Center of New York and spokesman for the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery. "There's no wavelength of light that will be absorbed by the color. Green is more resistant, too."
Tattoos can also be removed with a scalpel and "sanded" off during a treatment called dermabrasion. A new, so-called removable ink called Freedom-2 is being introduced, but many artists are reluctant to create tattoo art that may be considered temporary.
"A tattoo is a commitment you make," says Matta of Modern Body. "Removing it is demeaning to the artist."
KIM'S NEWS
Meet 35 year old Kim Forrest of Roseville. Diana Griego-Erwin reports in her column in today's Sacramento Bee about the unofficial Kings tattoo artist.
Former Sacramento King Keon Clark once told 35-year-old Kim Forrest that sometimes
the guys talk about her in the locker room at Arco Arena. He meant that, of
course, only in a good way.
The truth of it is, if anyone ever were to be named the Kings' official tattooist
-- and no one has -- Forrest might be first in line, if for nothing more than
the sheer volume of body artistry she's etched onto the pecs, abs, arms and
backs of some of Sacramento's most beloved sports figures.
Forrest and Wild Bill Hill disagree about which player came in first, Jason Williams or Chris Webber. Forrest believes it was Webber who first ducked through the doorway of Wild Bill's 28-year-old business, Wild Bill Tattoo in Roseville's Old Town area. One of Webber's cousins, Forrest said, already had been there.
Webber had the word "FAITH" tattoed on the inside of his wrist during the 2001 playoffs. After that JWill started showing up there regularly and at one time gave the couple courtside seats for a game. Wild Bill had never been to a game before.
"I couldn't even get Bill to watch them on TV before," she said of
Wild Bill, now an ardent fan whose shop is covered with autographed Kings
gear.
Scot Pollard showed up next, followed by Mike Bibby and Bobby Jackson.
Wild Bill often draws the custom designs while Forrest does the actual, multicolored tattooing. Jackson had a very lifelike portrait of his mother inked over his heart after she passed away early this year.
Bibby has been in about 20 times, the couple said, sometimes calling ahead to say he's bringing so many people extra artists need to come in. Bibby once showed up with three carloads of people and an ESPN film crew.
Word has gotten out about the Kings players frequenting the shop and now sometmes there are groups of fans lurking outside when a Kings player is getting some work done.
Now that a new Kings season is under way, Wild Bill believes it's just a matter of time before the newest players show up to sample his Kim Forrest's artistry. Recently he ran into Brad Miller at the local Denny's. Wild Bill, a 6-foot-6 illustrated man himself, pointed to his Wild Bill Tattoo logo shirt and said, "We've been expecting you." Miller rubbed his chest and looked kind of pained. "Yeah," Wild Bill said, "you've got a lots of space."
Etchings on royalty
C-Webb and J-Will find significant ink at Wild Bill's
By R.V. Scheide
Photo By Bill Hill
Wild man: Kim Forrest puts a wolf on the Kings’ Jason Williams.
Wild Bill Hill says a tattoo can change your life and he ought to know. He’s tattooed from head to toe, all 6-foot-6, 300 pounds of him. A genuine illustrated man. He could go out in public wearing a sock (over you know what) and still look like he had clothes on.
As proprietor of Wild Bill’s Tattoo and Body Piercing in downtown Roseville, Wild Bill, his longtime artist, Kim Forrest, and their colleague, Raleigh Annis, have tattooed tens of thousands of people from all over the globe. When it comes to tattooing, they’re strictly major league. Now, thanks to another major league, their work is getting big-time recognition.
Their artistry is all over the bone-white skin of Sacramento Kings starting point guard Jason Williams. It can be seen prominently in Nike’s “Freestyle” TV commercial, in which J-Will and other NBA stars shake-and-bake to a rap score comprised of dribbling basketballs, shoe squeaks and other on-court sounds.
Look closely at the inside of Chris Webber’s left wrist, and you’ll see the Kings power forward has put his “F-A-I-T-H” in Wild Bill’s Tattoo and Body Piercing as well.
It’s a sign of the times. During the past two decades, tattoos have gone from gutter to glitter, from mark-of-the-beast to mainstream fashion statement. With the NBA playoffs now under way and the Sacramento Kings threatening to make it past the opening round, the art of Wild Bill’s Tattoo and Body Piercing is receiving exposure before a national television audience.
It’s a clean-and-sober tattoo parlor, with neat black-and-white checkered linoleum, padded barber chairs and antique collectibles (robots, motorcycle miniatures and other toys) placed here and there. Wild Bill, Kim and Raleigh don’t drink alcohol or do drugs, and they won’t tattoo people who come in inebriated. A tattoo can change your life, Wild Bill says, and it’s their responsibility to ensure that the change is for the better. After all, it’s going to be on there for, well, life. If you’re thinking about getting a light bulb tattooed on your forehead, forget about it.
Of course, celebrity clients such as J-Will and C-Webb present a special case. Question: What does a 6-foot-10-inch multimillionaire league MVP candidate get for a tattoo? Answer: Anything he wants to, no matter how crazy it is. But Chris isn’t the crazy one. That would be Jason. It says so on the underside of his right forearm: “I-N-S-A-N-E.” He’s no tattoo virgin, Jason Williams. He was all marked-up long before he came to Sacramento. An eyeball above his right nipple. A panther on his right shoulder. A dragon on his other shoulder. I-N-S-A-N-E. When J-Will’s advance man called Wild Bill’s last year on Mother’s Day, the flamboyant point guard had just one thing in mind: escalating the tattoo madness.
It’s about a 25-minute drive from Los Lagos, the gated luxury community south of Roseville where both Jason and Chris live, to Wild Bill’s. Jason, his girlfriend and three West Virginia homies showed up in the basketball star’s white Lincoln Navigator, complete with tinted windows and five TV sets. It didn’t take long for Jason to choose a design. It was fairly sedate, by his standards: a basketball hovering over an outstretched hand that Kim tattooed on his left biceps. His three buddies also got tattoos, and his girlfriend had her nose pierced. Jason paid for it all, leaving a hefty tip and a good first impression.
Kim and Wild Bill have been around celebrities before. Tattooed musician Brian Setzer and his crew have visited the shop. Social Distortion singer/guitarist Mike Ness still owes Wild Bill $150 for work completed. Within the tattoo community, Wild Bill is something of a celebrity himself, and in a past life in Southern California, Kim used to work for a chiropractor where Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a regular client. For them, Jason was just another customer with skin in need of ink. He was far from the player who is currently being chastised as a hot-headed, pot-smoking showoff by the league, sports writers and fans of opposing teams. The Jason that Kim and Bill met was super-polite and down-to-earth. Sure, the four-carat diamond stud in his ear and the diamond-encrusted basketball pendant around his neck were a little gaudy, but what else can a former poor boy do?
A couple of weeks later, on J-Will’s recommendation, C-Webb showed up at Wild Bill’s. It was a Sunday evening, and he asked Raleigh to tattoo “F-A-I-T-H” on the underside of his left wrist. It wasn’t Chris’ first tattoo--he has a small bulldog on his chest. The power forward was so soft-spoken, Raleigh, who’s tattooed maybe 500 people since then, can barely remember him. But he does remember asking Chris to double-check the spelling. If you’re going to screw up, you don’t want it to be on one of the more well-known figures in the community, Raleigh recalls thinking.
A couple of weeks after that, on Father’s Day of last year, Jason paid another visit. Keep in mind, J-Will’s life was changing about this time. It didn’t have anything to do with the tattoos, not directly. He was sick of being a celebrity. He told Wild Bill that someone had actually asked him for an autograph while he was taking a leak at a urinal. He didn’t mind signing a few autographs for some of Wild Bill’s friends who had heard that the Kings player was at the shop, but he was tired of fans following him everywhere he went.
His game was going through a metamorphosis as well. He was seeing the future at the end of last season--a year in which he launched a phenomenal 505 three-point shots--when coach Rick Adelman started benching him during the fourth quarter in favor of backup point guard Tony Delk. After giving Jason free reign during his 1998 rookie year, Adelman began inserting something into the freewheeling point guard’s game that had heretofore been missing: discipline. Jason had fought discipline most of his life, and it wasn’t going to be an easy fit. Perhaps that’s why he found the design of a wolf he’d seen on his first visit to Wild Bill’s so appealing.
The wolf, with gnashing incisors, appears to be ripping its way out of the skin of the person upon whom it is tattooed. Once again, Kim did the honors, applying needle and ink to J-Will’s forearm in the photo-realistic style that is Wild Bill’s trademark. The wolf looks amazingly lifelike. Is it supposed to be Jason, escaping from the NBA’s straightjacket conformity, from the suffocating burden of being a role model? Jason didn’t say. All he told Kim was that he liked the design.
If the wolf was supposed to sublimate Jason Williams’ inner demons, it didn’t work all that well. During the summer, he tested positive for marijuana and was suspended for the first five games of this season. The suspension was a wake-up call, and Jason heard it loud and clear. Sort of. He made his third trip to Wild Bill’s on Columbus Day, before the season started. This time he didn’t bother calling before he came in. He told Wild Bill and Kim he wanted “W-H-I-T-E-B-O-Y” tattooed on his fingers.
For Wild Bill, that was pretty much the same thing as someone asking him to tattoo a light bulb on their forehead. A bad idea. He doesn’t like doing tattoos on the face or the hands, it puts people off, destroys tattooing’s hard-earned respectability. He wouldn’t even consider doing it for an ordinary person. But J-Will was no ordinary person. No boss was going to ask him, “What’s that tattooed on your fingers, boy?” After Wild Bill convinced Jason to use Old English-style lettering so the tattoo wouldn’t be as legible, Kim proceeded. Jason grimaced throughout the painful procedure, just like he does when he gets a bad call from a referee.
He’s been getting a lot of those lately. Bad calls. Some can be attributed to the fact that Jason now at least feigns at playing defense. But the calls that have been getting all the publicity have been the fines Jason has received for verbally lashing out at fans who have been heckling him about the marijuana, and, yes, the tattoos.
Have the tattoos changed Jason Williams’ life for the better? That’s a tough call. Since he got them, the Kings have played far above expectations, marching into the playoffs after finishing second in the Pacific Division. However, Jason’s results have been more mixed. His assist-to-turnover ratio has dropped, which is good, but so have most of his other numbers, which is bad. Back-up point guard Bobby Jackson has relegated him to the bench during tense fourth quarters. Then there’s all those altercations with fans, the last one costing him $25,000.
Still, J-Will’s the starter, he has the hottest selling jersey in the NBA, and the Nike “Freestyle” commercial is now playing as a 3-minute video on MTV. There’s even a new Nike commercial that might appear during the playoffs. The commercial pokes fun at the idea that “basketball is a black man’s game.” In it, Jason is digitally altered to look like he’s African-American. All of his tattoos are scrubbed off, then the camera closes in on his hands. In flesh colors showing through the brown skin appear the letters, “W-H-I-T-E-B-O-Y.”
The point being that it doesn’t matter what color you are--black, white or tattooed from head-to-toe--what you still have to do is show up and play basketball. No doubt, tattoos have changed Jason Williams’ life. But whether it’s for better or worse mostly depends on how he performs in the playoffs.
An article about the Van in Volksworld Mag! Awesome story!
Enjoy!
The Richest Ride on the Road Nothing is more luxe than a hand-built car.
By Ian Daly; photographs by
Rick Giles April 2005 DETAILS MAGAZINE
| The piney Georgia foothills are a blur as I veer the six-figure sports car along a winding, rain-soaked ribbon of highway. The solid-metal gearshift feels like an electrical conduit, channeling every sweet vibration of the 537-horsepower engine into some primal quadrant of my psyche that I’d forgotten even existed. As the needle soars to 100, I can hear the air surging through the vented aircraft aluminum. The feeling is more than good; it is close to enlightenment. But my spiritual transport has not come via a Lamborghini or even a Dodge Viper. It’s courtesy of a car few people have heard of, let alone own: a Panoz Esperante GTLM. And the man who hand-built it, Daniel Panoz, is sitting next to me in the passenger seat. Coolly lighting a Gitane while absorbing the performance of his baby, he smiles broadly.
“Very tasty,” he says. On a par, performance-wise, with new Ferraris that cost twice as much, Panoz’s $200,000 rocket rolls out of his factory in the woodlands of Hoschton, Georgia, at a rate of only 80 a year. “When we started the company, our argument was ‘Why should Europe have the monopoly on interesting hand-built cars?’” says Panoz. |
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And he’s not the only automotive entrepreneur asking that question: A handful of companies in the United States are microbrewing the kind of fine-tuned, jaw-dropping rides that Detroit can only wet-dream about. The appeal for the moneyed road junkies who buy them is clear—a head-turning high-performance car that makes a Porsche look as common as a minivan.
“I’ve driven the Porsche Carrera GT—a great ride by any measure, but it was boring compared to the Esperante,” says Tony Mastandrea, 38, the CEO of a Georgia real-estate-development company. “When you hear the sound of a Panoz, it just screams ‘I’m here.’ Everybody asks about it when they see it, and no one can believe it’s an American car.”
The Press-Tribune Shootin' from the hip
Wild Bill's sidecar fourth at Infineon
By: Steven Blakesley,
Wednesday, June 29
Bill Hill, owner of Wild Bill Tattoo in Roseville, owns two Panoz racecars,
a drag Volkswagen Bus, and a 1966 Harley that's one of the most photographed
bikes
in America. But Hill has found what he believes to be the most unique thing
around: sidecar motorcycle racing. "I was up in Truckee at an uphill race on an
old highway and there were some sidecars there," Hill said. "I thought
they were spaceships." |
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Victor Bernasconi, rides shotgun for driver Rick Murray In the Wild Bill sidecar. Wild Bill Tattoo sponsors the bike driven by Rick Murray of North Highlands, with Victor Bernasconi riding on the back. "There's nothing else like this," said Murray, who is the organizer of the Sidecar Racing Association West. "It's not a car or a motorcycle, and it's the only motor sport that involves two people." |
Click on photo to enlarge  |
Teams rely on the driver to drive the car, while the rider on the back leans into the corners. It takes agility, balance, and teamwork to be successful, with speeds reaching up to 200 miles per hour.
"With two people on the bike, you'd think it would be 50-50," Murray said. "But it's more 100-100. It's a 200 percent effort. When I go into a turn, I'm betting my life on my passenger."
The Superside America series, featuring riders from both the East and West Coasts, ran during last weekend's NASCAR Nextel Cup events at Infineon Raceway.
They raced immediately after the Sunday's NASCAR race. At least 30,000 fans stuck around to see a record 24-bikes compete in a 10-lap race. Murray and Bernasconi finished fourth after being a part of a three-wide duel for the third position all race.
"This event is the biggest thing to happen to sidecars in North America," Murray
said. "We've established ourselves as a marketable commodity." During
weekend practice sessions, crews from the NASCAR teams lined the walls on pit
road to watch the bikes tame the 1.99-mile road course in Sonoma.
"It's just really coming together for these guys," Hill said. "Once
it gets some exposure, its going to be nuts."
"When I first met Rick I told him 'I want my name on that bike,' " Hill
continued. "It's one of the most unique and fascinating forms of racing
and I wish I had the gonads to be able to do it."
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But the Esperante, he says, is the cream of his collection. It’s really responsive,” said Hill of his baby. “The way it goes into corners, it just holds the road. Just incredible.” The aluminum/carbon fiber, hand-built, one-of-a-kind car can do zero to 60 in less than four seconds, is faster and more manageable than any production Porsche, Corvette or Viper, and weighs 1000 pounds less than the Ferarri. |
Click on photo to enlarge  |