Friday Jones is becoming a household name when it comes to saucy femme tattooists. She's got the couture celebrity tattoo world by the horns, works in the cushy Chelsea neighborhood of New York City and travels the world on tattoo adventures. Lucky for us, she also finds time to create great TattooFinder.com tattoo designs! We caught up with Friday on her recent travels to chat about her tattooing background, judging our (somewhat scandalous) Hottest Inked contest last year and her tattoo wrangling of Robbie Williams.

TattooFinder: What influenced you to start tattooing?

Friday: I was driving cross-country in '91 on my way from California to Florida and I had a lot of time on my hands. I think I was abducted by aliens somewhere along the way and they made me want to be a tattooer. I had no tattoos and had only been in a shop once before to try to force my then-boyfriend to get one because I never imagined I would ever do something that freaky. Somewhere in east Texas I had the lunatic idea that I would be good at it and just look at me now. Thanks Zoltar!

TattooFinder: So what was your very first tattoo?

Friday: I got a Haida design in '91 on my shoulder. My boss Rahbe West put it on and carped about it the whole time, saying it was too small and dark and people in Jacksonville wouldn't get the Seattle reference. He was entirely correct on all points, of course. However, I was 21 and behaving as such. I still love my lil' ol' dark Haida!

Friday Jones was one of three judges at TattooFinder.com's 2008 Hottest Inked contest, along with Lyle Tuttle and TattooFinder.com CFO and longtime tattooist Rachael Bardach.

TattooFinder: When did you start drawing flash? What is your favorite style or theme to create?

Friday: Also in 1991. Drawing flash was part of my apprenticeship at Inksmith & Rogers and Eric had us all studying Sailor Jerry and Cap Coleman and using techniques in the traditions of the masters of the craft. Rahbe was interested in new techniques and technology, so I was also experimenting with airbrush and graphics tools early on. Personally I'm into figure studies and fantasy/metal genres, as well as religious themes and myths of all cultures. My degree is in philosophy and religion so there you go with that "underlying meaning" thing again. “Iconography.”

TattooFinder: Now I've noticed that you do a lot of black and gray work. Do you prefer a specific style over others?

Friday: I like black and gray 'cause it's fast and easy! Clients get more bang for their buck and I don't have to clean my tube between pigments. Haha!

TattooFinder: There are plenty of old-schoolers that prefer flash on the walls of tattoo studios, but more and more are jumping on board with having computers in their shops with sites like TattooFinder.com up for browsing tattoo designs. What are your thoughts about this?

Friday: I think it's great! I've worked in a few studios over the last year without internet access and both the clients and artists really felt the pinch of not having that immense reference resource that the rest of the world takes for granted nowadays. TattooFinder.com has worked very hard at creating a client-driven site that covers a broad range of subjects from a huge variety of artists. The tattoo industry can be pretty "insider-y" and a lot of folks can feel intimidated by tattooers. This catalog gives people freedom to browse at leisure and really progress with their design choices independently — without having to annoy street shop artists with random ideas that might not go anywhere.

TattooFinder: You've tattooed some interesting and diverse celebrities, from Lexington Steele to Angelina Jolie to Eyehategod. Who did you have the most fun tattooing?

Friday: Well as far as fun goes, it's a tie-up between Angelina Jolie and Robbie Williams, and not just for the obvious reasons! Both of these artists are highly creative and can take a lot of stimulation, so we'd end up acting out something hilarious while the serious process of tattooing was going down. With Angie, my roommate and I ended up electro-taping her foxy little mouth and naked body to the bed in order to start the shave, and there she endured the entire process. Sweating very prettily, I might add. We got photos.

Anyone who knows anything about Robbie Williams knows how whip-smart he is — and a wise-ass to boot! I was working on his back and it was a rather intense piece, the sheet music for "All You Need Is Love." It was a real challenge since I was depositing a series of super-straight lines atop a set of nicely bundled erector spinae. He sat strong and took it like a rock. He's sober and all his guys were sober and they were ensconced in this swanky hotel on the Sunset Strip playin' UNO. I had to tease him about his current mildness and about Uno being a gateway game and before he knows it he'll be stepping up to harder stuff like XBox in the tradition of "real" rock stars. Well, when all was bled and done we went into the fancy hotel bathroom to check out his back but the only reversal mirror we had was attached to the sink. He needed to see his entire back so I went in the other room to retrieve my digital. Immediately we all heard CRASH!! SLAM! SLAM! SLAM! We ran in to find Robbie up on the sink doing an artful British hotel bash-in on the (now non-) attached mirror. It was wild and unruly and no Jack Daniels was involved. That boy's got natural “Oi.”

The TattooFinder.com team got some ink of their own at the 2008 Denver Tattoo Convention. Here artist community director Brittany Marlier is having Friday tattoo her knucks.

TattooFinder: You have quite the list of famous clientele besides Angelina Jolie and Robbie Williams, including Jeanine Garofalo, Brant Bjork, Aaron Neville, and Otep. How DOES one become the tattooist of the stars?

Friday: Ha! Great question! The quick answer would be "deliberate intention." The long answer is that I make myself available to these busy folks by working with their schedules and needs, rather than passively standing by and waiting for them to come to me. I work closely with artists of other disciplines, music and film for example, and that enables me to meet a wider range of personalities. The other aspect of working with celebrities is being willing to take the extra time and face-to-face attention that they often require. Actors, for example have special considerations and musicians often want designs that look good on stage. Respect is the most important aspect, however. Respect for their privacy and respect for their processes.

TattooFinder: Some tattoo artists try to get through the tattoo they’re doing as quickly as possible so as to minimize the client’s pain. You seem to get some enjoyment out of watching people squirm...

Friday: WHAT? Who put you up to this question? Lou? You just wait! No, truthfully, that's the worst aspect of tattooing for me. If I'm well into a large piece and the client starts to stress, it causes me stress, too. It's a partnership. I try to keep my sessions to two hour increments, for the most part. Also, Xac Anthony and I have aligned with a doctor in Manhattan to provide an anesthetic option for clients who desire it. It's an unprecedented maneuver that has drawn some criticism from my people in the tattoo industry who feel that the pain involved with tattoo is a vital part of the process. While I respect their adherence to tradition, I myself HATE the discomfort that goes with both giving and getting tattoos. Involving a doctor in the process was a no-brainer for me. I wanted to take pain out of the equation as soon as I saw an opportunity.

TattooFinder: What are your thoughts about how tattooing has progressed and become so mainstream?

Friday: Total shocker! We were always this sort of marginalized culture. I couldn't even discuss my occupation around the dinner table at family gatherings until the TV shows "legitimized" tattooing. I'm glad more individuals in our culture have the heuvos to take ownership for their personal expression and to endure various sufferings for it. It's a very humanizing process to get tattooed. It levels the playing field, in a sense. Also, folks from a broader economic range are getting larger and more sophisticated designs. It's good for the industry.

TattooFinder: We’ve heard mixed things from artists in the industry about the way tattoo reality TV shows depict tattooing and the process behind it. What are your feelings about that?

Friday: We can only expect so much from reality TV. It seems that most people realize an element of hype is involved with the programs anyway, so anything beyond that is just exposure for the craft and that's a good thing. Hey, when I was coming up, the biggest tattoo reference we could point to in the media was a movie about a psycho tattooer (Tattoo) and Bob DeNiro's slugged-up maniac in Cape Fear. We've come a long way from those depictions. I wouldn't be able to do this venture with Xac Anthony if it weren't for those successful shows.

TattooFinder: This is a good segue into your recent appearance at Kat Von D's MusInk festival. What was that experience like for you?

Friday: It was strange and wonderful. I don't think any of us in our (formerly marginalized, vilified) industry are prepared for the hysteria Kat currently generates. I talked to Aaron Bell [TattooFinder.com artist] and his wife Melissa after the Long Beach show last year and they said when Kat came in it was like The Beatles had arrived. There are artists with more chops, but Kat plays to the audience. Any industry fallout that results from that level of attention is uncomfortable, but I've found that if you get over the discomfort you can make a lot of money.

TattooFinder: So you were recently out here for the Denver Tattoo Convention, the U.S. release of the Tattoo Sourcebook, and to judge the Hottest Inked Contest. Let's start with the convention. Do you attend many conventions? What was this one like for you?

Friday: Some years I hit the convention circuit harder than others, but on average I try to get to at least two or three conventions a year. The Denver Convention was really something else! The buzz had been building all week with the promotion Tattoofinder had been working for the Hottest Inked Contest. By the time the weekend came, it seemed like the whole city was psyched to get tattooed. Also, working the Tattoofinder booth with the release of the Tattoo Sourcebook was fabulous! We felt like we were on the front lines of some very savory industry directions, what with Harper-Collins UK backing the project and Tattoofinder taking such good care of us. Of course the book sold out immediately, which was exactly my experience in Dublin!

Friday was invited to participate in Skinfusion, a multi-artist collaborative tattoo session at the 2008 Denver Tattoo Convention. She's pictured here with convention organizer Krisha Jeannoutot and Skinfusion canvas Piper Rose.

TattooFinder: You were involved in SkinFusion at the convention, where you and two other female tattooists collaborated on one tattoo, taking turns working on it. Have you ever done anything like this before? What is it like working with two other people who have different styles than you and coming together to form one final piece of artwork? Do you feel like there is a creative control struggle?

Friday: Yeah, that was a pretty sexy SkinFusion. It was actually a really seamless, organic process, as all of us were looking to Piper, our lovely canvas, to direct her vision, which she did elegantly. She had researched our styles and assembled a concept that included images each of us were into. In the end, “Peacock and Skull with Roses” took on a flowing, effortless grace that made us all quite proud.

TattooFinder: The convention also saw the official U.S. release of the Tattoo Sourcebook, which you contributed to as an editor and an artist. How was it working with TattooFinder for this project? What are your thoughts on creating a book like this? How do you think this will change peoples' perspective of flash?

Friday: Well, I have had a long relationship with Tattoofinder so again, the process flowed naturally. We’ve always seen eye-to-eye on marketing and business trends, so me wanting to contribute to the development of such a groundbreaking project like The Tattoo Sourcebook was a no-brainer. I was just lucky that Tattoofinder thought my rhetoric worth reading! As far as changing people’s perspective on flash, I think this or its evolution will eventually bring flash to the classrooms.

TattooFinder: So let's talk about the Hottest Inked contest. I know you've judged tattoo contests before — how was this contest different from other ones you've judged?

Friday: In my almost twenty years of attending tattoo competitions, I’ll have to testify that there was never so much focused energy for a tattoo-related contest as there was for the Hottest Inked competition. The painted dancers got everybody heated up and in the mood, and the contestants went out there and killed it! The audience was losing their mind over those hot, young tattooed bodies. The emphasis on the “entire package” rather than just one artist’s project was really effective in engaging the population of Beta [nightclub] that night, and, of course, your talented master of ceremonies, Izra, knew just how to capitalize on all that positive energy!

TattooFinder: There was some controversy with a couple of the contestants. Specifically, the guy with the huge swastika on his chest and the gal who showed her non-pastie-covered breasts. While both of these contestants were disqualified, this raised a lot of talk about what should and shouldn't be acceptable for contests. What are your thoughts on this?

Friday: Well, as an artist I have to stand for free expression. My Semitic boss always admonished me when I would get judgmental in college about what someone wanted to get tattooed on them. Even when it came to controversial images, he always said it was better to mark them for what they were. However, it’s up to the host of the party to dictate the terms, and the rules that each contestant signed were apparently quite clear. Xac and Anthony [of Xac Anthony Salon & Spa] would never want something like that Swazi leaving the studio in Manhattan. As the audience for tattooing widens, so does our responsibility to the market.

TattooFinder: Will you grace us with your bad-ass-ness for the next Hottest Inked contest?

Friday: Absofreakin’lutely.

TattooFinder: Do you have any advice for someone interested in entering the next one?

Friday: Cardio and cool!