I walked into Evolution Tattoo in Mantua, NJ and, like always, got a very warm welcome from the owner and company. The walls of the shop are adorned with framed work by the artists that work there. Just by looking at the art on the wall you can already tell what kind of guy Billy Webb is. The bright colors and attention to detail along with the obvious talent help the framed pieces speak for themselves.
While I waited for Bill in the front of the shop I spoke to Bill’s wife Nikki and friend Rick Livingston. I asked them how long it usually takes to get an appointment with Bill, Rick said, “Normally he books up in 20 minutes for an entire month, but one month it took 5 minutes and that was impressive.” If you’ve seen Bill’s art then you can understand why he is in such high demand.
As I learned, speak the devils name and he shall appear, and so he did. Bill walked out of the back of the shop, fitting a bandanna on his head, with sanitary napkins taped around his arms and said a friendly hello. After a few minutes of shop talk I followed Bill to his cubicle where a lucky gentlemen by the name of Dominic was getting prepared for another session (Bill had previously started tattooing a Jeep on Dominic’s calf).
The preparation stage is always the most exciting stage for me when it comes to witnessing a tattoo session. Bill goes through every aspect you would want a tattoo artist to go through. Checking all his tools, making sure everything is clean and sanitized, choosing the correct colors for the session at hand. After 5 minutes of prep Dominic rolled up his pant leg, Bill threw on a plastic apron and the magic began.
As Bill worked on Dominic, over the buzz of the needle and Lynard Skynard’s “Free Bird (Live)”, I asked how he got into this type of a career and he said, “I kind of fell into it. A couple of my friends, who knew I could draw, tried to recruit me for a shop. And here I was thinking,“oh this is just a fad”, but I was so wrong. It was all kind of up hill from there. Went through training, worked at a few shop over the years, the got the good sense to open my own and go to town.”
When asked how Evolution Tattoo came about Bill stated, “My wife and ex business partner both talked me into it, but it was the right way to go. We actually didn’t have enough money to start with but, after a few paint jobs and a few divider walls it was okay. The place was gutted when we first got it, with wires hanging out of the ceiling and such but after that, we just worked the best we could and word of mouth and the internet helped a lot.”
When asked about his involvement in Evolution’s Pittman location Bill said, “As of late not much. I was bouncing back and forth to make sure everything was running right. My old apprentice runs the joint now but I try to get down there when I get the time. I constantly get clients confused on which shop I’m at, especially out of state clients.”
On the current climate tattoos have garnered from mainstream attention Bill said, “It’s both good and bad. I think it takes away the whole stereotype and humanizes us to a point but then there’s the people who believe reality T.V. such as Miami Ink, is reality. It is not the way they think.”
Well, either way, customers have to get in line because Bill is one of the best. If you get the chance I highly recommend you make the appointment, it is worth the wait. Check out the photos and evolutiontattoo.com for more info and art from Billy Webb.
(856) Ink 
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