Good Time Charlie’s was an institution in the tattoo world.

It was 1989, and upon his return from attending a tattoo convention in New Orleans, Corey got a break from the one and only Jack Rudy, who gave him a job at Good Time Charlie’s Tattooland in Anaheim, California. It was there that Corey met Dick Warsocki and began traveling and working the tattoo convention scene. Things changed for Corey in 1987 when Fat George gave him his first big break tattooing at Fat George’s Tattoo Gallery in La Puente, where he worked with George and Mark Mahoney. He knew his days of slinging tattoos out of a shoe box were numbered and that he would soon be hammering out ink with one of the strong machines they were using at Spotlight. Spotlight Tattoo was the hardest punk rock tattoo shop in Hollywood, and Corey was intrigued by the hand-drawn skulls and other tattoo designs on the walls. He used to carry his homemade contraption around in a Vans shoe box with a bottle of Pelican ink.īy 1983, Corey ventured out to Hollywood and found himself at the first real tattoo parlor he had ever set foot in, Spotlight Tattoo, run by the venerable Bob Roberts. This inspired Corey to build his own tattooing machine, which consisted of a fish tank pump motor, a bent toothbrush, the tip of a Bic pen, and some guitar string as a needle.

So he carved out his first tattoo on himself using a needle with thread wrapped around it. In 1982, a fifteen-year-old Corey Miller was playing drums in a punk rock band and he decided he needed a tattoo. Ask premier tattoo artist Corey Miller how he got into the tattoo business, and he will probably tell you it was 'by hanging around the wrong people.' And if you have a sense of humor and you get it, he may tell you the real story.

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