HORSHAM retiree “Poison” is thought by tattoo artists to be one of the most inked-up people in the Wimmera.
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Poison, who is aged in his late 60s and did not want to use his real name, has collected tattoos for 40 years.
“Back in my youth, you’d see the sailors and blokes in the navy,” he said.
“I started on my forearms.
“My very first tattoo was a panther. It’s sort of faded now.”
He’s still going under the needle, filling in some blank areas that were too difficult to use with older hand pieces and inks. Poison has a preference for work done by ‘Cage’, the former owner of Horsham’s Dragon Dagger tattoo parlour.
“He moved down to Melton last year and I followed him there for a few sessions,” he said.
“He opened a shop in Dandenong and he’s doing some work on me there.
“He’s nearly finished.”
Despite having tattoos over almost all his arms, legs, chest and back, Poison said he got the work done to please himself and not others.
Cage has already completed work on Poison’s armpits and next week will finish some work on his ankle.
Poison took a few years off from getting new tattoos before Cage moved to Horsham.
“He got my back done. There’s only a few spots left, including a few on my bum,” Poison said.
Poison said his ankles were the most painful places to get tattoos, apart from his ribs and the palm of one hand.
“When I was getting my stomach and my ribs done, I’d think, ‘what am I doing this for?’,” he said.
When Poison first got into tattoos, he said there were only three places in Melbourne to get them done.
Subcultures like the Sharpies, Mods and Skinheads inspired Poison to expand from isolated sailor-style tattoos to full coverage.
“Skinheads had full sleeves. I thought ‘I’d like to get that’,” Poison said.
“I came from Bairnsdale originally, and I’d go down to Melbourne on the train and get a tattoo.
“I saw some blokes on the train and it was what I wanted, what I’d always wanted.”
Poison used to work for Horsham council repairing roads.
Poison said when he first came to Horsham 30 years ago, his tattoos were unusual but never caused a problem at work.
“Sometimes when I’m out in the street I get young ones asking,” he said.