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Dan Henk: From Punk Rock Beatdowns to Tattoo Artistry and 'The Joke is on Mankind' Anthology
13 Plays26 days ago
Join Jo as he sits down with Dan Henk, tattoo artist, author, and creator of the upcoming anthology "The Joke is on Mankind." Dan shares his incredible journey from being a blue mohawk punk rocker getting beaten up by nazi skinheads in 1980s Virginia to becoming a successful tattoo shop owner in Long Beach, New York.
We dive deep into Dan's unique approach to his anthology - offering original illustrations worth $300-500 to every contributor instead of payment, his experiences interviewing with DC Comics and Penguin Books, and wild stories from the punk scene including nights at CBGB's and the 930 Club. Dan also discusses the evolution of tattoo culture from counterculture to mainstream, shares advice about persistence in creative fields, and reveals why "no" doesn't always mean never.
Whether you're interested in horror anthologies, tattoo artistry, punk rock history, or the creative process, this episode delivers authentic stories and hard-earned wisdom from someone who's lived it all.
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Transcript
Intro
Introduction of Dan Hank
00:00:08
Jo
Hey everyone, Joe here and today's guest on What's Cracking is Dan Hank. And this is something that's been a while in the making. So I'm so glad to have you here, Dan. Thanks for coming.
00:00:18
dan henk
yeah thank you for me
00:00:20
Jo
Yeah, of course.
The New Anthology: 'The Joke is on Mankind'
00:00:20
Jo
And we've got a lot of things to talk about from cosmic horror to your new anthology, The Joke is on Mankind, coming out soon, soon, soon, soon.
00:00:30
Jo
And I have to...
00:00:32
dan henk
hopefully two months yeah
00:00:33
Jo
Hopefully two months. And that's the thing. Your new anthology, The Joke is on Mankind. Could you give me a lead-in to what that's going to be about the anthology-wise? Is it interlinked stories or is it kind of the same theme or what?
00:00:45
dan henk
Sure. I do a bunch of author conventions and I know a lot of people and I do a podcast too and interview authors,
Collaboration with Authors
00:00:53
dan henk
some like indie authors, some like bigger authors.
00:00:53
Jo
Cool.
00:00:56
dan henk
And ah I hit a lot of them up and I was like, hey, I'm doing an anthology and I don't have like Jeff Bezos money, but how about this?
00:01:03
Jo
Right.
00:01:04
dan henk
I do illustrations for every story you give me. So I'll give you one of my original illustrations, which I mean, they often sell for anywhere from $300 to $500.
00:01:07
Jo
Right.
00:01:12
dan henk
So like,
00:01:13
Jo
Right.
00:01:14
dan henk
They're like, oh, yeah, cool. So I had people actually ask me to be in my anthology just to get illustration. But yeah, so they're all like kind of along the lines of like Twilight Zone or Tales from the Crypt or, you know, one the like little creepy, little spooky, not too much like gore, splatter or anything like that.
00:01:32
Jo
Right.
00:01:33
dan henk
But just I was looking for Storm Stories.
00:01:36
Jo
Well, that's amazing when you're saying that. I'm like, man, I totally would have. If someone said like, you know, what I'm gonna an individual artwork for you. If you give me a story for an anthology, I'm like, that's a fair trade.
00:01:47
Jo
Absolutely. Like, here you go.
00:01:48
dan henk
Yeah.
00:01:49
Jo
Which one do you want?
00:01:49
dan henk
Yeah.
00:01:51
Jo
That's an amazing thing. And I think you hit it on the head. So you're taking this anthology and you had people on your podcast.
Podcast and Invitation Strategy
00:01:58
Jo
What's your podcast called?
00:02:00
dan henk
Skull sessions with the Dink.
00:02:02
Jo
I love it. I love it.
00:02:03
dan henk
Skull sessions is like an old English term for like deep conversation.
00:02:06
Jo
Yeah. The deep, like what's cracking now. Right. You know, combos.
00:02:09
dan henk
Yeah, exactly.
00:02:10
Jo
Right.
00:02:10
Jo
And so you meet people.
00:02:11
dan henk
Like the Kraken, I dig it.
00:02:13
dan henk
Yeah.
00:02:13
Jo
I know. I know. I was like, part of the hardest thing about podcasting is like, what should I call my show? Like, I know what I want to talk about, but what should we call this?
00:02:19
dan henk
Yeah. No, that's clever though. Like was cracking.
00:02:24
Jo
I appreciate it very much. We have this and you're meeting people and you're saying, hey, you're an author. You want to put something in anthology? Have you ever gotten a no?
00:02:37
Jo
Like a straight out like, no, I don't want to do this.
00:02:39
dan henk
No, I've had, I haven't gotten to know, a although I don't go, hey, will you be in my anthology? I go, hey, man, do you have time? This is what I'm doing. it And And there are some people that are like,
00:02:49
dan henk
Hey, you know, and and everybody's been nice.
00:02:49
Jo
Right.
00:02:51
dan henk
I've had some people that are like, hey, I'd love to do it, but I'm really busy right now. And I even had some people say that.
00:02:56
Jo
Right. Right.
00:02:57
dan henk
They're like, yeah, but I managed to something. How's this? And then they'll submit it me. And it's not like, you know, everything you submit to me, I'm like, okay, in the book. So you submit to and I'll be kind of
00:03:08
dan henk
i I'll be like, hey, man, it really didn't grab me or whatever.
00:03:13
dan henk
I try to be nice. I mean, they're people I respect. You know, like I opened up this anthology to like all different people for submissions. And there were quite a number of people that sent me stuff I didn't like at all.
00:03:24
dan henk
So I wasn't an asshole, but I'm just like, hey, man, sorry. You know, um I'm going to move on. You know, good luck with your story.
Handling Rejections and Offers
00:03:32
Jo
Right.
00:03:33
dan henk
went from there.
00:03:34
Jo
Yeah, I have a question about this because we used to do charity anthologies for Empty Hell. And sometimes when people were submitting and it's the mix of like the good, the bad, the ugly, right?
00:03:46
Jo
The good, like instantly in, you're awesome. The bad's kind of like, like, well, could you cut out some parts or can you tweak this a bit and re-send it to me? And then the ugly, which is just like, no, we just can't.
00:03:59
Jo
Did you ever get replies to rejections? Did people actually reply to you?
00:04:04
dan henk
No, actually they didn't.
00:04:06
Jo
Really?
00:04:07
dan henk
Like, they submitted. also run a commission of, say well, I don't run, I'm part of it.
00:04:13
dan henk
It's called The Dignist Hand.
00:04:13
Jo
Right.
00:04:14
dan henk
And it's like a commission for like tattoo artists and authors and artists and comic artists and stuff like that. And I was like, if you're in my anthology, the one I just opened up, was like, if in the anthology you know accept your story, you get a free booth.
00:04:32
dan henk
You know, so quite a number of people hit me up for that.
00:04:36
dan henk
I think, you know part because they were like, dude, fucking free booth. don't know if here say everybody.
00:04:40
Jo
Yeah.
00:04:42
Jo
Oh, no. Cursing's fine.
00:04:42
dan henk
You know, and I'm from New York.
00:04:45
dan henk
We hear this all the time.
00:04:46
Jo
Nice.
00:04:47
dan henk
But yeah, so a number people hit me up. And I was actually surprised that a lot of them, they just, you know, they didn't pass the smell test. You know, it's like you'd read it and you're like,
00:04:59
dan henk
is it's nothing great, you know, but you don't want say, Hey man, I didn't like this or like that.
00:05:02
Jo
Yeah. I
00:05:05
dan henk
I'm just like, Hey, thanks for submitting. know,
00:05:07
Jo
don't know.
00:05:08
dan henk
Yeah, but I actually hit up a number of people that were in a previous mythology.
00:05:09
Jo
It wasn't for us.
00:05:13
dan henk
I was like, hey, man, do you want to write me a story? Because I was trying to open up to a bunch of new people, and I was kind of disappointed.
00:05:21
dan henk
So I ended up only accepting one new submission.
00:05:25
Jo
Really?
00:05:25
dan henk
Everyone else, I knew. They may not have been in my anthology before, but I met them at all the conventions and stuff.
00:05:32
Jo
Okay, interesting you say that. And really love talking about this because it's like talking shop with me. And your anthology, The Joke is on Mankind, coming out soon.
00:05:42
Jo
And even the convention booth, like, wow, you're giving them convention space. You're giving this stuff. like You're very generous. I'm going to tell you this right now. That's amazing, generous of you.
00:05:52
dan henk
Oh, thank
00:05:52
Jo
I mean, people ever just go like, oh my God, thank you. Do they actually know how much... Are they cognizant of how generous this is?
00:06:01
dan henk
Well, I've had some people, even some like fairly big names, you know, give me something and I'll read it and I'll talk to them about like, yeah, I'm going to this illustration for it, you know, and like, oh, so I take it I'm accepted.
00:06:01
Jo
Yeah.
00:06:06
Jo
Right.
00:06:15
dan henk
You know, it's like... So they're very like, you know, they're mild about it. They're very humble about it.
00:06:21
Jo
Right.
00:06:22
dan henk
And the people that have submitted something that's like garbage, you know, I didn't say like anything negative other than I'm just not taking it.
00:06:31
dan henk
And then never heard from them again.
00:06:34
Jo
Well, that's actually a good sign. Because sometimes our form rejection letter was kind of like, thank you for submitting. Unfortunately, no matter how this is written or well written or whatever, as we said, it's just not our brand of horror for right now. Keep good luck with this. Keep submitting in the future. All good pieces.
00:06:52
dan henk
Do you see No Matter How Well Written?
00:06:52
Jo
And some people took that. Yeah.
00:06:55
dan henk
Like, I didn't even include that because I was like somewhere not well written.
00:06:55
Jo
Yeah.
00:06:58
dan henk
was like, dude, you need to work on it.
00:07:01
Jo
Yeah, i like, every once in a while, if someone like like responded back in a positive way, like what was wrong with it, I'll give them like, okay, you had to do this, this, you know, like here's the actual editorial feedback of it. Or if I find that there are a first-time author who just doesn't know much about the stuff, like, okay, hold on. here we This is how can kind of tighten this up. And, you know, beginnings and endings, right?
The 'Stephen King Fallacy' in Writing
00:07:22
dan henk
Right.
00:07:22
Jo
Usually people miss the ending and and miss beginning. like they have like the beginning is actually page five. So other five pages, you just cut that out. This is where you begin. Do you see that sometimes?
00:07:34
Jo
Like people just can't land the beginning?
00:07:35
dan henk
What I see, can't see what i call the Stephen King fallacy, which is people start out with like a strong premise and then it just goes off the rails and you're like, that was the ending? Really?
00:07:46
dan henk
Really?
00:07:47
Jo
Yeah. No, I appreciate that. And it was kind of like... I love Stephen King. And there's sometimes if I have to read the book, I'll skip pages. I'm not gonna lie.
00:08:01
dan henk
I feel like his earlier self was a lot stronger.
00:08:01
Jo
Yeah.
00:08:04
Jo
Tighter.
00:08:04
dan henk
then like after he kind of like broke big, he was kind of like, I'll just do my thing.
00:08:08
dan henk
I mean, maybe that's also when we started doing a lot of coke or whatever.
00:08:09
Jo
Yeah.
00:08:11
dan henk
But then like, I remember the final thing where i was like, I got to cut this off is I read Thinner.
00:08:12
Jo
Yeah.
00:08:19
dan henk
Thinner would have been like a great 30 page short story. But he made it like a 250 page novel. He spent a whole chapter talking about toilet paper. was like, all right, I'm out.
00:08:30
Jo
funny thing is when he said thinner, I'm like, oh, that's a great short story. I actually remember it as a short story in my head, probably for the same reason.
00:08:36
dan henk
Yeah.
00:08:37
Jo
Because you just keep going like this, like, oh, yeah.
00:08:40
dan henk
Well, it should have been. It was a short story that he just, like, padded out.
00:08:43
Jo
You just kept padding out.
00:08:44
dan henk
Yeah.
00:08:44
Jo
Yeah, no, I love it.
00:08:45
dan henk
Yeah.
00:08:46
Jo
So you're talking about the production end of it. What's your big, not your big workflow issue, but what is one of the things you're like, oh, I can't wait. i You just can't wait to do it. And one thing you dread. like What's the one thing that says, I can't wait to put this an anthology out. I can't wait to do blah.
00:09:04
Jo
Is it the illustration part of it? Is it the weaving together the story order or what?
00:09:09
dan henk
Well, I enjoyed the illustrations. I mean, originally I wanted to be a comic artist and like I interviewed with DC Comics.
00:09:12
Jo
Right.
00:09:16
dan henk
I interviewed with Penguin Books about doing book covers.
00:09:17
Jo
Cool.
00:09:19
dan henk
Like none of that worked out. Like they they really liked my stuff. But like I remember DC Comics doing very bad at the time and the movie saved them. So they only want superheroes. I was like, I'm out.
00:09:31
dan henk
And then Penguin Books like my opinion, but they give you like a job like once a year. You know, I was like, you can't live in New York, you know, doing that.
00:09:36
Jo
Yeah.
00:09:39
dan henk
But, you know, so I enjoy the
00:09:39
Jo
No.
00:09:42
dan henk
like, whenever read a story or I write a story, like I try picture all of it, like I'm like going through it, you know, so like I visualize stuff.
00:09:48
Jo
Yeah.
00:09:51
dan henk
So I, I love to bring it life, like doing the illustration. i was like, you know what, there's a perfect illustration for it. I don't know, probably big, like, time is always a factor, because I'm like, I gotta get this out, oh, wait, i so I want to do my best job, but in a timely fashion.
00:10:07
Jo
Yeah.
00:10:11
Jo
Yeah. And I think you hit it on the head because i think people don't realize how much time and effort and a thousand really is.
00:10:19
dan henk
yeah, oh, yeah.
00:10:19
Jo
And sometimes if you have 20 people in it, that's 20 different egos that you're juggling all at once. And some are patient, some are not patient. And then, you know, Amazon's going to do something to you. Book fault is probably going to great for you.
00:10:33
Jo
But there's always something that's going be like, no, this cover size won't fit. It's like 0.00002 pixels I'm like, the fuck?
00:10:39
dan henk
I know it does that.
00:10:41
Jo
Yeah.
00:10:41
dan henk
So you have to make it like 0.63 and it was actually 0.67.
00:10:44
Jo
Yeah.
00:10:45
dan henk
You're like, oh, come on.
00:10:47
Jo
Yeah, i I'm using your template. Or they'll have it passed the first time.
00:10:48
dan henk
Yeah.
00:10:51
Jo
It'll go live. And then a year from now, ah ah they'll give you an email saying, oh, by the way, your cover size doesn't fit. I'm like, it fit for a
00:10:58
dan henk
I know. Yeah.
00:10:59
Jo
Yeah, so yeah all all these little things in the back end, I agree. Like, oh, man, just time wise and stuff like that. Now, you talked about you are an artist.
Tattoo Shop and Punk Rock Roots
00:11:09
Jo
And I see you might have some ink.
00:11:12
Jo
Do you do tattoos?
00:11:13
dan henk
Yeah, I own a shop here in Long Beach, New York.
00:11:17
Jo
Nice. Nice. What got you into tattooing, man?
00:11:21
dan henk
I originally, was in Virginia and was super punk rock, like blue mohawk, spiky leather jacket.
00:11:28
Jo
Yeah. Cool, dude.
00:11:30
dan henk
And I just, I mean, this was like the late 80s, early 90s. And, I just got harassed, like like like fake police charges, beaten up by skinheads, all sorts of stuff.
00:11:42
dan henk
So, But I really, ah ah really wanted to be an artist. Like my dad's super military. So like I got really high grades and got set to really good art school, but I couldn't afford to take out a loan.
00:11:55
dan henk
And he went co-signed to kick out of the house moved.
00:11:57
Jo
Right.
00:11:58
dan henk
So when I finally got on my feet and I put myself through art college and my teacher said, hey, if you want to make it as an artist, you got to move New York. So i was like, okay, so, like, on the, like, everything owned was in a backpack, it was a motorcycle, I just moved to New York.
00:12:15
dan henk
And a friend lives in Queens, I just moved into the spare bedroom. And, uh, while I was, like, submitting to, like, DC Comics and Penguin Books and all these people, and, like, you know, going to all these gallery shows and everything, I remember went to, uh,
00:12:28
Jo
Right.
00:12:29
dan henk
Pratt had like a portfolio day and one of the guys at Pratt, you know, said, Oh, you know, you should get a job. was like, well, I'm trying. He's like, well, I ink for DC comics. So I'll say what's the interview.
00:12:42
dan henk
was like, Oh, great. So then went that interview and like I told you earlier, know, they wanted me do superheroes. I didn't want to do superheroes.
00:12:52
dan henk
So I had a friend of my brother's who also painted was a tattoo artist. And he saw myself, he's like, that guy's learning to tattoo. So he taught me and I was thinking, you know, I'll just tattoo until I get a quote, real job.
00:13:07
dan henk
But then liked it so much. And then, and I blew up in the industry. Like at one point I was like every magazine that are flying me all over the world and stuff is like, I call my 15 minutes of fame, you know, but after that, it's kind of hard to let go of. Cause it's like, you know, this is really working for me and I enjoy it.
00:13:26
Jo
Right. And that's the thing is like, we never know how life's going to take us sometimes. You know, artwork tremendous. And like you said, you can't live off one cover a year.
00:13:33
dan henk
No, thank you. Yeah.
00:13:36
Jo
Not in New York. And you have this integrity about your art. And I think that's integrity that made you go, I don't want to do superheroes. And that's part of that. Because I know a a lot of people would go, would draw whatever you want for a job.
00:13:50
Jo
Right? And you you're like, no, I don't want to. I'm not interested in superheroes right now. And I think that's great. And tattoos. I'm not showing mine right now. i've i've actually got long sleeves on today. And it's like one of my near to dear my hearts. Because you were saying you started out.
00:14:04
Jo
Kind of like the punks in the 80s and the You know, Gen X as well over here. And you find that as a counterculture and tattoos used to be counterculture.
00:14:17
dan henk
Oh, definitely.
00:14:17
Jo
You know, they used to be a symbolic thing, you know, know, stuff like that.
00:14:17
dan henk
Yeah.
00:14:20
Jo
So you actually seen the art.
00:14:21
dan henk
Like only bikers in low life got him. Yeah.
00:14:24
Jo
I point to my, you can't see it right now. I did this, I got my first tattoo in a biker's garage.
00:14:32
dan henk
Yeah. I believe it.
00:14:32
Jo
Right? Yeah. That's where it was. Where you want to go? It's only one dude that does it. He's, we'll say, in a motorcycle club. You have to go to his garage and you sit down do it.
00:14:43
dan henk
Well, lot places it was illegal, so that's where had we to go.
00:14:46
Jo
You know, back in the day. And now you're like, I can go this and get like a slushie at a strip mall.
00:14:51
dan henk
Yeah.
00:14:53
Jo
It's changed a bit.
00:14:53
dan henk
Well, they make a joke. They have a meme. It used to say when you had neck tattoo, it said, I'm bad, motherfucker. Stay away from me. Now it means, let me read you my vegan poetry.
00:15:05
dan henk
Oh, wow.
00:15:06
Jo
but It's true though. And you and you see okay you seen the inks change as well like you seen all these things where the inks you still like the colors I used to get charged by the color back in the day That's that's how all my stuff was like yeah exactly now like charged by color.
00:15:22
Jo
What do you mean? So have you ever tattooed someone that was? like We're not going to say bad choice, but if you try to talk someone out of a tattoo, you're like, oh, you rethink this one.
00:15:35
dan henk
Oh, all the time. I mean, I've been tattooing for 25 years. So I've run the whole gamut.
00:15:39
Jo
Wow.
00:15:42
dan henk
Like ah ah people, like I have the craziest tattoo stories. But as far as talking somebody else, like we, tattooing has changed a lot. Like it used to be in some ways was a lot better because there were rules on things you didn't do.
00:15:51
Jo
Yeah.
00:15:56
dan henk
And now just like, you know, kids are like, I'll do whatever. You know, but then it was also bad because it was like a little bit of a restricted, closed society.
00:15:59
Jo
Right.
00:16:05
dan henk
know, so like, you know, it's gotten better and gotten worse. know, mixed bag. But I remember a kid came in, just turned 18, and he wanted a giant tattoo on his neck.
00:16:15
dan henk
And he wanted, I think, don't remember what it was. It was like giant letters or something.
00:16:20
dan henk
And like, he's very well dressed, you know, like, you know, nice cut, slicked back hair and everything. I was like, you know, is this for tattoo? He's like, yes.
00:16:30
dan henk
I'm like, how old are you? He's like 18. I'm like, you don't know what you're going do in life. We call tattoos like that job stoppers. So don't get that, you know, right there because it's probably going to prevent you from getting future work.
00:16:44
dan henk
And so he thanked me and he left. I was at a shop. It was all like, you know, backstabbers and whatever. you Like in those days, you had a lot of like really negative people in the industry.
00:16:56
Jo
Yes.
00:16:56
dan henk
that's They call the owner, you know, and the owner comes over and he's like, Dan, I heard you turn down a tattoo. was like, you know, his name was Lou. And i was like, Hey Lou, well, you know that, you you know, the kid's only like 18.
00:17:10
dan henk
I went the whole you thing. He goes, fuck him.
00:17:12
Jo
Yeah.
00:17:13
dan henk
Take the money. was like, I was like Lou, you know, don't think like that.
00:17:20
Jo
And that's exactly it.
00:17:20
dan henk
I mean, I didn't work for Lou that long.
00:17:21
Jo
Yeah.
00:17:22
dan henk
eventually went to another shop, you know, but that's another story.
00:17:26
Jo
Well, mean, right. And that's the thing. I'm thinking of a shop in Montreal right now that started because of the other shops, not all the shops in the area, but one shop in particular was just so toxic.
00:17:39
Jo
People left and formed their own thing because it's just like that.
00:17:41
dan henk
Yeah, that's actually fairly common.
00:17:45
Jo
Yeah, um and it's kind of cool to see more artists. like love when artists band together and try to do their stuff. you you said you got beaten up by skinheads or attacked by. should say attacked by skinheads.
00:17:55
dan henk
No, I can't beat them I had my knees broken.
00:17:56
Jo
Oh, man. Okay.
00:17:58
dan henk
I, you know, I've gone to the hospital, bill a bunch of times.
00:18:01
dan henk
Like I remember, when I was still living um in Virginia, just like, I lived in Northern Virginia, like right by D.C., and I remember there a lot of Nazi skinheads in Virginia.
00:18:13
dan henk
I mean, D.C. is mostly black, so a word called sharp skinheads, which is skinheads against racial prejudice. So they have like black skinheads and like Latin skinheads and whatever. But so, and they'd always fight with like Nazi skinheads.
00:18:26
dan henk
And I remember I went out and I came back and I was like, I mean, I was like, I don't know, 1918. Drunk as fuck. And come in and I was going through what I call my ah death rocker phase.
00:18:37
dan henk
So I had like, know, fingernails and like black eyeliner on.
00:18:38
Jo
Yeah.
00:18:40
Jo
Yeah.
00:18:41
dan henk
Like, I looked like Glenn Danzig or something, the you you know, and except for a lot of skinnier. So I'm walking in and there's, you know, I was singing a punk rock squat when I was homeless.
00:18:47
Jo
Let's get your dad's egg.
00:18:53
dan henk
So singing in punk rock squat. lived there for like about, I don't three weeks, a month, but was there and they were having trouble with, like it was like a gang that was like mainly a drug dealing black gang called white tea.
00:19:09
dan henk
So then some of those people brought in this group of skinheads to fight white tea. We, yeah, let's fight fire with fire.
00:19:17
Jo
Yeah.
00:19:18
dan henk
But so I can walk it in and there's like a group of them around the table. I'd never seen them before. I come in drunk as fuck. And, You know, one of them sees me wearing eyeliner, you know, and he's like, oh, what?
00:19:29
dan henk
You think you're a girl? I was like, no, do you think you are? And that was it. And then, like, I woke up later with, like, him. i was asleep upstairs with him on top of me punching me in the face.
00:19:41
dan henk
And, like, you know, his giant buddy sitting in next to him just in case, you know, drunk as small me would say something.
00:19:47
dan henk
But, yeah, one of the the many times, yeah.
00:19:50
Jo
Jesus, man. And that's the weird thing because remember like lot of the punks. It's so weird for me to see the new, sometimes the new skinheads and like punk hang out.
00:20:04
dan henk
Right.
00:20:07
dan henk
Well, punks have always been against Nazis.
00:20:10
Jo
Yeah.
00:20:10
dan henk
But here's the thing. So would happen is like, You know, it used to be there was like a whole group of skinheads that weren't racist at all. Like I said, there were black skinheads and there Latin skinheads and whatever.
00:20:20
Jo
Right.
00:20:22
dan henk
So, you know we tried to keep that very separate because you get a lot of like oi music and, you like people that were like just into like that culture that were not racist at all.
00:20:28
Jo
Yeah.
00:20:31
Jo
Right.
00:20:32
dan henk
You know, all skinheads were like, you want to be part of a group? but But that's not like probably very like individualistic.
00:20:37
Jo
Yeah.
00:20:39
dan henk
You know, but, and they would each the time. But the thing is, you know, what we do, because everything was a small community back then. Like you didn't have like a green day or anything blowing it up.
00:20:51
Jo
No, not yet.
00:20:51
dan henk
So we'd have like goth clubs, you know, and they'd play like, I don't know, like ministry and front 242 and like, you skinny puppy and so like that.
00:20:59
Jo
Yeah.
00:21:01
dan henk
But all the hot girls, girls would be there.
00:21:01
Jo
Wow.
00:21:04
dan henk
So all the punkers went there and all the skittings went there. to try it and on the hot goth girls right and yeah they end up being fights you to get jumped all sorts stuff but yeah that's what it was in those days
00:21:12
Jo
Oh, God. Perfect storm, man. Perfect storm.
00:21:17
Jo
Yeah. Oh, shit.
00:21:22
Jo
It really was. That reminds me of like, I've been to to clubs in Vegas where they had dirt floors.
00:21:27
dan henk
yeah yeah oh there were lots of shows yeah
00:21:28
Jo
Dirt fucking floors for a club. Yeah. i was like, cause you just, the blood was so much. Yeah. Right. Oh, you're from New York. You've been to CBGB. Yeah.
00:21:37
dan henk
Oh, of course. Yeah.
00:21:38
Jo
Okay. Go for it.
00:21:39
dan henk
When I lived in D.C. and I moved to New York in 98 and there Toney Island High, which is my absolute favorite.
00:21:44
Jo
Oh shit.
00:21:47
dan henk
And there was CBGBs pretty much around the corner. And ended up working Andromeda tattoos, which is kind of of between the two of them.
00:21:50
Jo
Yeah.
00:21:55
dan henk
And so I go to CBGBs so often that the bouncers there, they just recognize me and wave me in. I would even have to pay.
00:22:01
Jo
Oh, cool, dude. That's cool. No, it's so weird. Okay. Because it no longer exists, right?
00:22:09
dan henk
Oh, no, it's gone. Well, Well, BBGB shop in Vegas where they just like sell merchandise and stuff.
00:22:10
Jo
Yeah, Yeah, it's gone a couple of years ago.
00:22:14
Jo
What? There's still... Wait, okay. spent like time, we'll say like 10 years or so in Vegas. There's a CBGB shop now in Vegas?
00:22:24
dan henk
Yeah. like So Gibby, the owner, like originally the opening and he wanted to be like a country club, but it was like at the time, Lower East Side was like, you know, really dangerous.
00:22:26
Jo
Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:35
dan henk
So a lot of punk bands, end up playing there and they end up playing there, but going, Hey, we'll bring people. And like, how does you make the money off the bar?
00:22:43
dan henk
So like, we'll bring people, you know? And so they bring people and that, that kind of like kept the bar alive and Stevie Jeeves alive. And then, you all these like famous people, like everyone from like television and Blondie to like, you more like punk rock acts were playing there, you know?
00:22:57
Jo
Richard hack. Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:01
dan henk
And after like, When that got to the point where lease was up, had a long lease, like a 30-year lease. The city said, we will, because it was such an icon of the city, the city was like, we will buy you like new spot.
00:23:16
dan henk
And Gibby was like, yeah, I've had it.
00:23:19
Jo
I'm good.
00:23:20
dan henk
So he just moved to Vegas and just sells T-shirts and whatever.
00:23:25
Jo
Oh, shit. to look them up now. Okay. Yeah. I may may remember going there not as much as you because the bouncers definitely did not know me. But I remember when New York went smokeless inside the clubs, you would have to go outside of CBGBs that smoke.
00:23:38
Jo
And yet, I would see drunk punks kind of pissing in the corner.
00:23:42
dan henk
Yeah.
00:23:43
Jo
The dichotomy of it was kind of like, outside of smoke, indoors to piss. Sure. All good. All good.
00:23:48
dan henk
Well, in D.C., like, the basically equivalent of CBGB's was called the 930 Club.
00:23:54
Jo
Okay.
00:23:54
dan henk
And, like, I saw, I don't know how many bands there.
Reflections and Advice to Younger Self
00:23:57
dan henk
Like, it I I saw Sebastian Composition before they were signed. I saw saw GBH, exploited whole bunch of people.
00:24:06
dan henk
But I remember there was smoking in that club. And
00:24:09
Jo
Yeah.
00:24:10
dan henk
ah ah Think of CBGBs only slightly smaller, but packed with way more than the fire hazard allows you.
00:24:17
Jo
Right?
00:24:18
dan henk
Half of them them smoky. ah ah You can barely fucking breathe in there.
00:24:21
Jo
I bet. Like a wall of fucking smoke, man. It's funny when you're talking about the pumpkins before they're signed. We used to party with part of them before they were signed as well. They're like, this is blah, blah, blah from the Smashing Pumpkins. Like, yeah, and who cares?
00:24:32
Jo
And i was like, oh, like my bad.
00:24:34
Jo
That's on me. That's on me. Okay, got it, sir. Sure. I didn't know they'd be that big. Who knew? because you have to understand when these bands first started coming out, they're like, They're touring these like the hunt ridges or their small little clubs, like small, like you're saying CBGBs, but smaller, you know, people didn't know how big they're going blow up.
00:24:53
Jo
You knew they're good, but it's always a dice.
00:24:53
dan henk
Yeah.
00:24:56
Jo
It's a fucking dice roll half the time. Right.
00:24:58
dan henk
Well, I remember, because i a lot friends of who were, like, skaters, because, like, skaters, McGrawkers kind know, went hand in hand. So I remember we listened to of stuff on Sub Pop.
00:25:08
dan henk
Back when Sub Pop was, like, kind of like the indie kind of, like, alternative club label.
00:25:11
Jo
Wow.
00:25:13
dan henk
So that's where I first heard L7 and Tad and Nirvana, you know. And I remember Nirvana was playing at the 930 Club.
00:25:21
dan henk
And I like Nirvana because, you know, their first album Bleach had come out on sub-pop. And, you know, that was like very hardcore and punk rock. And I was a big fan of that and like Mudhoney.
00:25:29
Jo
Yeah.
00:25:30
dan henk
So it was all in that vein. So went to buy tickets. They sold out, not because they were big yet, but because the headliner was Primus. And I guess Primus was big on my college radio stations.
00:25:42
dan henk
And then they blew up. And then, of course, they never got tickets.
00:25:46
Jo
Oh man, it goes that way. So you're taking all this punk energy and all your tattoo artistry and you're making an anthology with the joke is on mankind.
00:25:56
dan henk
Right.
00:25:56
Jo
Is that kind of like all energy creative forces come together in this an anthology?
00:25:58
Jo
Right.
00:25:59
dan henk
Well, it's different people. So different people obviously have different experiences. Whenever I write something, try and like, cause I hate when people write about something, they don't know anything about and they get wrong, you know?
00:26:12
dan henk
So I want to take some of like my life experiences and, fortunate unfortunate.
00:26:12
Jo
Yeah.
00:26:17
dan henk
I've had a lot, know? So like, I'll try and bring some of that into it, you know, and like, uh, like, You for instance, when was in D.C. and like a drunk punk rocker and there are all these abandoned project buildings, we go explore They're all kind of creepy.
00:26:32
Jo
Yeah.
00:26:33
dan henk
Like we'd have to crawl over the fence crawl in through a broken window, you know, and stuff.
00:26:38
Jo
Yeah.
00:26:39
dan henk
Then I'll write a a story about like one of those, but like I'll put like a monster in there or something. But I try and base everything off of stuff that I know.
00:26:45
Jo
That's good.
00:26:47
Jo
Yeah, that's amazing.
00:26:47
dan henk
But it was little different, know.
00:26:48
Jo
I should.
00:26:51
Jo
That's true. That's true. And it's always like the broken window. Sometimes it wasn't a broken window. It's a broken window now.
00:26:56
dan henk
Exactly.
00:26:58
Jo
found this broken like this. Yeah, know. Absolutely.
00:27:00
dan henk
Oops, I just found it like that. I don't know.
00:27:02
Jo
Oh, it's perfect. Yeah. Oh my God. This is really fun. Okay. So the anthology, the joke is on mankind. It's coming out shortly. Is it going to be on the Zahn? Do you have other, like a website that pushes?
00:27:17
Jo
Where are you pushing this out?
00:27:18
dan henk
My website, danhink.com, pretty simple.
00:27:21
Jo
Nice.
00:27:22
dan henk
But my website will have it, but I'll have it everywhere. Quote, everywhere find books are sold.
00:27:28
Jo
Fine books are sold.
00:27:30
dan henk
So like Barnes and Nobles, Amazon, you know, I have a million different digital platforms to be on, like Google Books and Co-O and all that sort of stuff.
00:27:39
Jo
Yep. Digital is lovely, especially nowadays. One place does it all.
00:27:45
dan henk
Unfortunately, you don't get paid, but you get a lot of eyes on it.
00:27:49
Jo
Yeah, and that's the thing. It's like, you're going to be a millionaire. like You know how much You know how much downloads people have to do to get like a dollar from this?
00:27:53
dan henk
No.
00:27:56
Jo
You know? It's amazing.
00:27:58
dan henk
They're like, you sold 35 bucks. Here's cents. i'm like, what? Yeah.
00:28:02
Jo
I know. I know. Yeah. It's what was like the biggest awakening thing. I don't have a book in, uh, not really. Like when you look at a book, they're like, Oh, it's like this cost 1995. So the author must get like about 12 cents.
00:28:16
dan henk
Yeah.
00:28:17
Jo
Yeah. About 12 cents.
00:28:18
dan henk
With tattooing, what do you charge per hour?
00:28:18
Jo
If you're lucky. Yeah.
00:28:22
dan henk
Oh, so you make that kind of money? I'm like, no, you know much supplies cost, how much licensing costs. you
00:28:28
Jo
Yeah.
00:28:28
dan henk
I everyone tattoo studio in New York, and basically the joke is you have to pay for license to get a license. Because they have a sign fee.
00:28:38
dan henk
One business doesn't have a sign, but we have to pay a sign fee.
00:28:40
Jo
Yeah.
00:28:43
Jo
That's insane. That's insane. i I've seen so many knockoff signs traveling around the world. like, I'm pretty sure Michael Jordan not approved the sign. But you go to New York, it's like, no, you have to have this fee to have anything in front.
00:28:51
dan henk
Yeah.
00:28:55
Jo
Yeah. The fee for a fee, man. My God.
00:28:57
dan henk
Yeah.
00:28:59
Jo
Okay. So the last question, the last question I'll ask today If you can give younger, like we'll say 10 to 15 year old you advice, what would you give?
00:29:11
dan henk
Right.
00:29:13
Jo
would you say?
00:29:14
dan henk
Well... One thing that's worked for me is don't give up, but I never give up. So for good or bad, that's got me where I am. What I would tell me, my younger version of of myself is like, when people tell you no, it doesn't mean a hard no.
00:29:29
dan henk
What it means is, you know, try and resubmit because like, you know, a lot of like, for instance, the comic artists, like it, I submitted to everyone and like when, when, and like after a while they start writing you back and like, well, you know,
00:29:33
Jo
Yeah.
00:29:39
Jo
Yep. Yep.
00:29:44
dan henk
this person, this character will act like this, work on this anatomy, work on this perspective, whatever.
00:29:49
dan henk
So, you know, when you're like, you know, 17 or 18, you're like, oh man, they hate myself. But you got learn they're actually, they probably get like a thousand submissions. And so what they're telling you, if you then take it and apply it and get better, they're like,
00:30:05
dan henk
oh man, this guy really listened to me. And like like that gets you further. The same thing with everything, with tattooing, with writing.
00:30:11
dan henk
Like, there are tons of people that have applied to a shop to your apprentice and the shop's like, yeah, now get of here. And then they keep trying again and again. vintage shop's like, well, you know, apparently this is a big thing for them. I'll give them chance.
00:30:25
dan henk
And that's what you have to
00:30:25
Jo
Yeah. Yeah. That's brilliant advice. No is not always a hard no. It's just not right now.
00:30:31
dan henk
Exactly, yeah.
00:30:32
Jo
And work on your craft and always come back.
00:30:35
dan henk
Right.
00:30:36
Jo
I love it. That's perfect. And Dan, you've been a fabulous guest. And the joke is on Mankind Anthology.
00:30:43
dan henk
Which is a left-right quote.
00:30:43
Jo
Get the podcast. I love You know what?
00:30:46
Jo
I'm going to tell you
00:30:46
dan henk
He said, life is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind.
00:30:51
Jo
I love it.
00:30:52
Jo
It's perfect. It's brilliant. Dan, thank you so much. And for myself, Joe and Dan, we'll say goodbye, everyone.
00:30:55
dan henk
All thanks.
00:30:58
dan henk
All right, bye.
00:30:59
Jo
Peace.