WHETHER YOU PUSH THROUGH TRAUMA OR LET IT DEFINE YOU, IT STILL DEFINES YOU…

… I REST MY HAT ON MY FAILURES BECAUSE I LEARN FROM THEM.”

or does it stay the same across mediums? What about when, as in the case of NFTs, the medium is so new?

I mean, making art with no template is exactly what I’ve been doing since I started making art. There’s no boundaries to art. I can take a white canvas and sell it to a museum, and it’s art. That’s what‘s cool about it: it’s not like the music industry where you can’t sample shit – it’s just perfect, unrestricted freedom to do whatever you want. Some people are puritanical and precious about it – “oh, he sold a blank canvas to a museum“ –

Fontana, Malevich –

– yeah, the other camp sees their work and says, “sick, those guys are gutsy... what other buttons can we push?” I’m in that camp. As far as NFTs go, it’s just a different audience. If I’m a comedian and I tell jokes at the Comedy Cellar on MacDougal Street, that’s my fine art. If I then fly to Berlin and tell jokes there, it’s the same jokes... just a different audience.

And you find the people that get it…

...they find me. Everything that I do fundamentally starts with a question: can I put my soul into this or not? There’s a clear divide in the NFT world. In less than a year, it’s gone from early adopters to celebrity attachment to community-based projects. Crypto Punks is a prime example: there’s 10,000 punks, and if you own one you’re part of the squad. And so on one hand, you have that being viewed as a concept, like performance art, and on the other it’s people that care deeply about being part of something.

It’s all about packaging and intent, right? You don’t sell someone art, backstory is everything. Everything that I do has undeniable intention, that’s why I never invested in crypto, because like, it’s a soulless endeavor. But I’m a sucker for that…

...soulless endeavors?

No, the opposite! I’m a sucker for not putting a hundred dollars in Bitcoin 10 years ago when I had the opportunity!

Look, I don’t know anything about art, but my intent and the way that I put myself out there is pure. And that’s what resonates with people. That’s how I became the tattooer that I am.

Last question. If you could call anyone in the world and ask them for advice, who would you call and what would you ask them?

Simon Sineck would be a cool one. He has this “Golden Circle” theory, the basic concept being people don’t buy what you’re doing, but why you’re doing it. Besides him, maybe Neil deGrasse Tyson... he just seems sweet, and he loves space. We could vibe on interstellar shit.

ANYO.NE/SNUFFY