BOB ROBERTS:
"Roberts started tattooing in 1973 under the tutelage of Bob Shaw and Colonel Todd in Santa Ana, California. From there he would work with Cliff Raven before going on up to San Francisco and working with Ed Hardy.
While Roberts is strongly associated with Los Angeles, the first iteration of his Spotlight Tattoo was in New York City during the days when tattooing was still illegal. He rented a loft and worked in one half while living in the other. Eventually the scourge that is New York real estate led to him getting kicked out of his lease, so Roberts returned to the west coast and opened a new iteration of Spotlight Tattoo in a garage on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. Eventually the spot would move into a proper shop next door, where it still is today.
Over
the years Roberts would try his hand at many different styles of work,
but he always came back to the American traditional that was the
backbone of his days tattooing a dozen people per day on The Pike. Like many tattooers from that generation, Roberts understood that he wasn't just an artist, he was in the service industry.
"If you’re a photographer, the important thing is what you’re taking a picture of, not you—if I want to be an artist, I can go buy brushes and I can go buy paper and make art," Roberts told BME in 2009. "But, if I want to be a tattoo artist and nobody’s coming to get a tattoo from me, I’m not a tattoo artist. So, the future and where things are going and the approach, it’s not up to us, man. We’re secondary. The important thing is the person getting the tattoo, not me."
Over the course of his 40+ year career Roberts must have tattooed thousands of people, if not tens of thousands of people. His legacy will be carried on by his son Charlie, who is naturally a tattoo artist as well. Roberts will be sorely missed by not just those who knew him, but by everybody who appreciates tattoos around the world. Below we've gathered some of the many tributes that have been pouring out over the last day.
RIP Bob Roberts- INKED.
"Bob Roberts was the founder and owner of the famed Spotlight Tattoo in Los Angeles, California and was known for his intense watercolor style, detailed compositions that pull from Traditional American Tattoo flash, Tibetan Thangkas Paintings, and outlaw motorcycle imagery.
Bob was born in Los Angeles, California, March 9, 1946, Bob’s dad owned a store in downtown LA on Eight and Broadway. Bob would go to work with his dad on the weekends, which would lead to him exploring the block and the surrounding stores. According to Bob, “they had a lot of tattoo shops, so I used to go into all of them until I got thrown out, and I just always loved it, man. I saw all these people getting tattooed and from a young age it just nailed me to the wall.” As a young adult, Bob played saxophone in Rock n’ Roll bands for many years. During this time he was still painting a lot of flash designs with the desire to find a job. “I thought I could be good at it (tattooing); I loved drawing the designs. So I went to a few shops and went, “Hey! Where can I get some ink and some guns?” And they just told me to get the f**k outta there.”
One day in 1973, Bob was driving down the hills of Laurel Canyon when he ran across some friends hitchhiking. A fringed leather jacket with a Japanese dragon done in Indian beads caught his attention, so much that Bob stopped to inquire about the design and who had made the jacket. When Bob asked Truly if she made the jacket, she said she did, so he asked if she did it herself. She said, “Yeah, and I’m a tattoo artist too.” Bob explained that he was looking into getting equipment and machines. Truly explains “I have a whole outfit I could sell you.” “So, I bought some machines and some flash (that I still have) and a power-pack, and that’s really how I got started”.
Shortly after, Bob would get his first three tattoos from legendary shop “The Pike” in Santa Ana, California, currently known as “Outer Limits Tattoo''. Originally opened in 1927 by legendary Bert Grimm, The Pike is the longest continuously running tattoo shop in America and is still in operation. There Bob would be tattooed by Bob Shaw, “I told him I was interested in working there. I’d bring him stuff that I’d drawn and I’d get tattooed by him, so he gave me the ultimate challenge: bring some people in that’ll let you put a tattoo on them. Well, I was in a rock and roll band at the time and these guys knew I could draw, so I told them to come to The Pike with me to get some free tattoos—I was bringing two carloads of guys a week down there. And I did alright, you know? I guess they figured, “Well, I guess this means we have to give this a**hole a job.” And they did!”. After his apprenticeship under Bob Shaw and Colonel Todd, he would take over Bert Grimms’ chair, working alongside Bob Shaw. After 4 years working for The Pike, tattooing dozens of people a day, sometimes more, Bob took a 4 month hiatus before working for Cliff Raven at Sunset Tattoo in West Hollywood. From there he would go on to work with Ed Hardy at Realistic Tattoo in San Francisco, California. After working for Ed for three and a half years, Bob then moved to New York City to open his first iteration of his Spotlight Tattoo in New York City during the days when tattooing was still illegal. He rented a loft, living in one half, tattooing in the other. Unfortunately, the owner of the building would eventually sell it, forcing Bob to reconsider his options in where to tattoo. “I wasn’t gonna live and work in the same place again, and I couldn’t afford to open a shop on the street and then get a separate place to live in plus, I was burned out on New York, so I came back”. Returning to the west coast, Bob opened a new iteration of Spotlight Tattoo in a garage on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. Eventually, Spotlight would move into a proper shop next door, where it still is today.
Paul Rogers was born on September 9th 1905 in North Carolina, and spent most of his childhood moving from one cotton mill town to the next. Paul started to work in the mills when he was only 13 years old, long before child labor laws were enacted. "Nothing but hardship, man it was hard for everyone." Paul worked in the cotton mills until he was 37 years old. Thankfully, his last years in the mills were part time, because in 1926 when Paul was 21, he got his first tattoo and found his lifetime occupation.
Only two years later he was tattooing with a kit he mail ordered from E.J. Miller in Norfolk, Virginia. In 1932 after tattooing all the folks around his home, Paul hit the road with the J.J. Page Show in search of adventure and clean skin. Later that very same year, Paul joined the John T. Rea Happyland Show where he met and married the boss's daughter, Helen Gensamer. For most of the next decade Paul and Helen worked the carnival circuit in the summers and worked in the cotton mills during the winters.
In 1942 when Paul got a chance to tattoo in Charleston, South Carolina, he jumped at it. At this time his pay envelope from the mill for a 40-hour workweek was $42, which was the biggest payday he ever had in the mills.
After getting his shop up and rolling, Paul now was making $150 to $200 a week! Needless to say, Paul never went back to the mills. In 1945 Paul began a 5 years association with Cap Coleman of Norfolk, Virginia. Coleman was already a legend in the tattoo world and Paul said it was like a dream come true to be invited to work with Coleman. Paul stayed in Norfolk until 1950, when the city fathers shut down tattooing in that city. Coleman moved across the Elizabeth River to Portsmouth, Virginia and tattooed for a few more years.
Paul and Lathan Connelly opened shops in Petersburg, Virginia and Jacksonville, North Carolina. In 1955 when Paul grew tired of traveling between these shops, he took the Jacksonville location and Connelly took the Petersburg shop. This is where the mail order supply business of Spaulding & Rogers was formed. Paul was involved in this business for only a couple of years, but Paul and Huck Spaulding worked together in Jacksonville up until 1961. In 1960 they closed their shop on Courts Street and went to Alaska. This only lasted for one month and they returned back to Jacksonville, North Carolina soon after.
From 1961 to 1963 Paul and his family lived in Camden, New Jersey where Paul tattooed with Sailor Eddie Evans. In 1963, he moved to Jacksonville, Florida and tattooed with Bill Williamson. The very next year Bill Williamson died and Paul inherited his shop. By 1970, Paul was back working in Jersey with Ernie Carafa on a part time basis.
In 1970 Paul and Helen Rogers bought a mobile home at 1200 Shetter Avenue #3 in Jacksonville, Florida. It was here that Paul brought his decades of experience together with what he had learned from the likes of Coleman, Bill Jones, Jack Wills, Charlie Barr and others, and built some of the best running tattoo machines in the business. In 1982 Helen, Paul's wife of 49 years, died. She was buried at the Greenlawn Cemetery in Portsmouth, Virginia. In 1983 Paul Rogers was admitted to the Tattoo Hall of Fame in San Francisco, California, which was part of the Tattoo Art Museum created by Lyle Tuttle.
Paul suffered a stroke at his home in Jacksonville in 1988 and never fully recovered. The next 2 years were spent in a nursing home in Jacksonville. Paul died in 1990, at the age of 84, after spending 56 years in the tattoo business. He was buried with his wife in Portsmouth, Virginia.Paul left his extensive tattoo collection to the Tattoo Archive. In 1993, C.W. Eldridge, Alan Govenar, D. E. Hardy and Henk Schiffmacher formed a California nonprofit corporation, The Paul Rogers Tattoo Research Center ("PRTRC") where they serve on the Board of Directors. The primary goal of the PRTRC is to preserve tattoo history.
Timeline of Paul Rogers' Life
Want to learn more about Paul Rogers? We have several booklets about Paul's life in our online store.