eric jones

The gun is loaded, blood will flow, a buzz will pierce through ears, moans of pain will be heard and tears may even drip. But in the end, Eric Jones will have branded you will a one-of-a-kind tattoo.
Jones has not even hit 40 and has already made his mark in the tattoo industry. Between maxing out his credit cards, dealing with various city officials and spreading the word about his brand new tattoo shop, Jones sometimes barely makes it though the day without passing out from excitement or exhaustion. His secret: pure passion, of course.
“I believe we are all put on this earth for one thing,” said Jones. “If mine isn’t tattooing than I don’t know what I am doing here.”
Jones was born on November 17th 1972 in Carmel Valley. The first 18 years of his life was spent moving around Northern California; Monterey, Davis, Sacramento and eventually he landed himself in San Francisco in 1990.
When he was 18 years old he got his first tattoo and fell in love with the needle right away. A few months later Jones decided he wanted to get into tattooing and began practicing drawing and did his first tattoo on himself using Lincoln logs and sewing needles to create a make shift tattoo gun. At 20 be began his first apprenticeship at Craven Images in Redwood City.
“Originally I thought tattooing was reserved for old school biker dudes but then I noticed some younger artists starting and knew it would be a really cool job,” said Jones.
Today Jones is completely covered from his neck down to his feet in tattoos that he has collected through the years from various artists across the states.
Although Jones never went to college, he had always excelled in the arts growing up. Before entering the tattoo world, Jones had a wide variety of jobs from working at music stories to health food store. His mother, a social work college professor, never gave him a hard time for not going to college and eventually came to terms with his choice of careers.
“At first she wasn’t so into the idea of me being a tattoo artist but over time she became very proud of me once she began to see how much hard work and dedication I put into my job,” said Jones.
The long hours, sketch after sketch and stress of developing his art was all worth it when Jones
Jones’ first real full-time tattooing gig was at Anubis Warpus in San Francisco. He has also worked at Incognito in Pasadena and East Side Ink in New York. Eventually he landed back in San Francisco and started work at Mom’s Tattoo on Haight Street where he would spend the next eight years of his life.
“He is such a talented artist and in the past few years has become one of the best artists in the city,“ said former co-worker Jesse Palmer. “He is going to go very far in life.”
During those eight years Jones was able to improve as an artist, build relationships with his clients and get fed up with bosses just enough to motivate him to quit open his own shop where he can do things his way.
Later this month Jones’ will open the doors of his shop, Let it Bleed, to the public. Yes, the name is a Rolling Stones reference. The shop is located in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco at the corner of Polk Street and Post Street.
“To be honest, I really have no desire to own my own shop but I just don’t want to have a boss anymore,” said Jones. “My biggest fear once the shop opens up and employees start is that I will end up becoming a shitty boss that everyone hates.”
Jones financed the shop completely on his own. Luckily, he has very good credit and was able to pay for everything between a few credit cards and selling valuable personal items such as old guitars and various other vintage items he had lying around his apartment.
So far Jones has got everything he needs signed off by the city plumbing department, fire department and health department. The only thing he is waiting on now is the official business license.
“It was a nightmare dealing with the city and all its different departments but the worst part is done now,” said Jones.
Jones is aware that there is going to me some tough competition with other tattoo shops in San Francisco that already have some kind of special reputation. Goldfield’s Tattoo in North Beach is the oldest shop in the city. Black and Blue in the mission is the only all female tattoo shop. And of course there will be pressure to exceed his success at Mom’s Tattoo.
“It’s going to be hard being the new shop on the block but I am designing my shop to me a mix of a custom shop and a street shop,” said Jones. “There is going to be a lot of original hand painted flash work… and not the corny typical flash you see at those shops that attract a bad clientele. We aren’t going to be specializing in tribal tattoos, that’s for sure.”
Jones is also planning to eventually give his employee’s health insurance, something that is almost unheard of in the tattoo industry. In addition he is going to strive to give back to his friends and the community.
Danny Smith, a former co-worker, recently found out he needed over $10k work of dental work done. Smith does not have insurance and has been trying to come up with the money. When Jones heard about it he immediately offered to hold a fundraiser doing tattoos of teeth for only $30 at his new shop. All proceeds would be given to Smith to help him get the denial work done.
“It’s situation like these that makes Eric stand out,” said Smith. “He has got it down when it comes to being a great guy, both personally and professionally.”