Justin Buduo - Age of Quarantine Interviews

Justin Buduo is the owner of and a tattooer at Studio 31 Tattoo in Worcester, Massachusetts.  That's on hold now due to social distancing regulation but we were able to catch up to Justin from a healthy social distance over Zoom and talk to him about what he's doing with himself nowadays.
This is a series of interview videos so don't forget to check out the rest.  Let us know what you think and drop a comment and hit the thumbs up.

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Justin Buduo - https://www.instagram.com/artofbuduo/
Studio 31 Tattoo- https://www.instagram.com/studio31tattoosllc/
We also mentioned:
Tommy's Supplies - https://www.instagram.com/tommyssupplies/
Needlejig tattoo Supply - https://www.instagram.com/needlejig/
Helios Tattoo Supply - https://www.instagram.com/heliostattoo/



Production Music licensed through www.evokemusic.ai
Intro Track: https://evokemusic.ai/direct/v1RWWz6QpNxFO

Transcript

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 0:13

Hi, welcome to under our skin podcast. We're here today with Justin video from Studio 31 tattoos in in Worcester, Massachusetts. How you doing today Justin?

Justin Buduo : 0:24

I'm doing well how are you?

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 0:26

Good man can't complain can't complain. How you doing today in these crazy pandemic times you everyone healthy you, the family, all that stuff.

Justin Buduo : 0:35

Yeah, we got a couple family members that tested positive, were hospitalized and whatnot. And then they're actually one of them just got off the ventilator. And the other one he's actually it's actually his her husband. He's just been an honorary old man and doesn't want to deal with the ventilator. He keeps trying to shut it off and pull it out or whatever it is. But other than two of them my cousin, he had it. He's doing fine now. And other than that, just a couple of friends and family friends that had it. They all did. Everyone's recovered. So I mean, it's not a bad thing.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 1:12

That's awesome. You can't ask her better than that.

Justin Buduo : 1:14

No, yes. No, that's for sure.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 1:15

They're bucking the bucking the statistics, I guess.

Justin Buduo : 1:18

Right. Well, it was fucking scary to begin with. Also, unlike the two oldest people in the family, all of a sudden are the ones with COVID. And they obviously have the underlying condition. So everyone was super nervous about it. But yeah, it turned out well, and everyone is doing great.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 1:32

Awesome. That's great. I'm glad to hear.

Justin Buduo : 1:34

Yea, You and me both

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 1:37

I bet. How long? has to 31 been closed? Have you did you guys get shut down, sir.

Justin Buduo : 1:46

We were thinking about the week prior and we started dwindling down our customers. And then I think Wednesday was my last customer and then that's Sunday or Monday is when Governor Baker masters as such to shut everything down. So we were we were trying to hold off right to the end. And then I think that was like March 23, or something like that. So we've been we've been out of it for a little bit, but right when we got shut down, like my first thing was just because I heard about the PPE shortage everywhere. So we started just donating all our material to any of the local hospitals. And then I got together with Tommy from Tommy supplies Mark from needle jig. And then Craig over from Helios. And we got a bunch of stuff together and managed to raise them was like 30 $500 and bought a bunch of supplies and donated those all. So it was a good way to start it off to like to kind of keep ourselves busy. And then just doing the typical drawing that you always do as an artist. I actually started going out and creating like color pages originally was for kids, but very good after that Tiger series got very adult oriented. So yeah, so it turned out to be color pages for adults. But I was posting those online and just letting people download them and have fun and they were sending back it was kind of cool to see some of the People's takes on them. So yeah, it was a good way to start it off. And then actually when things started to die down, like died down for us, where we were running out of things to do, I think that's when it all kind of hit us like shit we're not we're not going back to work. We're not going to make money this is going to be a tough one.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 3:24

So So after after all that died down What have you been doing now to keep busy?

Justin Buduo : 3:29

Well, I got the kids that I got to school them still. Aside from that, like just cleaning up the house, doing yard work doing the typical thing that everyone else is doing. I'm fortunate enough that I brought all my tattoo equipment home. So with my girl My fiance, we actually started her back piece on her. So we're trying to get this a full back piece done in quarantine time.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 3:52

That's awesome.

Justin Buduo : 3:53

Hopefully we can get it done. If she can set she's a seven a tough time. She's usually pretty good, but I mean the way that things are right now, it just it messes with your head. And it's just day to day. So one day, you could be super into it. And then like two or three days later, you know, as you're just depressed and you just, you don't want to do anything.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 4:12

So as I've been talking to tattoo artists,I feel like it's kind of a mixed bag. Some people are on one end, where they're like, Oh, yeah, well, I'm home and I have lots of time to draw and paint and this and that. And some people are saying, Yeah, I just I just can't get the inspiration to get going and inspiration, do anything, just sitting home all the time and doing nothing.

Justin Buduo : 4:35

Oh, it's hard too because once you get used to sitting around doing nothing to try and get that motivation back, it's so much easier just to pick up a beer can or a fucking pipe and just be like, screw it. I'm gonna get high today. And just that's how I'm gonna spend my day. Oh, I have Yeah, so it's

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 4:50

Getting him getting into doing nothing is an easy pattern to fall into.

Justin Buduo : 4:53

Oh, yeah. Well, it's like I even tell my kids to is because we have chores for them to do as I show today. My oldest, he's 10. But he's got to do two chores. So it's like, buddy, I know, it's like, it's hard to stay in a routine, especially in this kind of time, but we got to keep up with it. And I think that's the best thing for any artist or anyone out there right now is just like, not give up on these routines just like keep, keep some sort of routine going, so that you don't just kind of fall into that depression of like, just no motivation. Like those motivational days are gonna happen, but just gonna kind of fight through and, and just look on the other side of things.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 5:30

Yeah, I agree. 100% I have in my regular job, I'm an electrician, and I have periods sometimes during the year when I'm off for, you know, six weeks, 10 weeks 12 weeks and it's it's so easy to fall into that rut of just like laying on the couch all day and doing nothing Yeah, but if you if you're able to get up in the morning and do something and like you said, stay in a routine of some kind that really makes really makes it easier and it really makes going backt To back to work back to real life easier. Whenever you know

Justin Buduo : 6:04

That's a tough thing too is going back to work. Because like, so normally me and my girl we're up at like, six 630 in the morning, gets kids ready for school and then we get a quick workout and then we all asked to work. And then we're at work till 10, 11 o'clock at night. So our day is completely packed. Now all sudden, we're like sleeping in, I say sleeping in we're sleeping into like, seven 730 but it's like, we're not used to this shit. Like we're used to four hours sleep and that will also get in like nine hours because we just don't want to wake up. It's easier just to sleep through most of us.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 6:37

Yeah, sure. I mean nice for you to go to sleep and wake up in like six months when everything is back to normal and just

Justin Buduo : 6:43

Man I hope it's not six months. It's definitely look in that road though. Because we even today, we we still have to call our customers and let them know that even though they know that we're closed down, we still have to give them the information that hey, we're gonna put your tattoo on hold on one of our clients today he's he works for the fire department and he was saying those numbers you see on TV and online, not go by those. Like it's he said it's so much worse than what they're actually telling us. Which is crazy because you hear both sides of that story. Where you at? You'e in in Connecticut?

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 7:18

In New York. I'm in New York.

Justin Buduo : 7:19

Oh, Jesus, you're in New York. So you you know exactly how bad it gets. I'm not in a city. I'm a little bit north of the city, but it's it's pretty bad around where I was till Yeah, yeah, it's it's fucking ridiculous out there. Because we found out Massachusetts is the third highest hotspot. And then Worcester, where my studio is the number one hotspot in Massachusetts right now. Really? Yeah, they just had, they just came across today talking about it. They had a Walmart Well, this is where the numbers are, like fudge to me like I'm a conspiracy theorist. I'm sorry. People gonna hate me for it. But um, but put it this way. Like there's something going on between the media and the government. That it's not telling us where like, so Walmart was shut down and Was there for having 21 people test positive? Also in two days later, they put out a news article about it and it's 81 people that tested positive. So I was like, Alright, what's what's what's the truth here? What's going on? So, but I'm not going to get into like the politics or the or my beliefs because that's one thing I stay off of off of Facebook and Instagram like I will not post anything political anything religious because it's gonna offend someone nowadays, it doesn't matter who it is, someone's gonna get offended and as a business owner, you just you can't put that out there. You just got to be you got to be like, just enjoy it and not enjoy it, but just kind of like roll with it. Yeah, that makes sense. You

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 8:39

know, that's fair. And I think we can you know, no matter I think no matter what side of the whatever what side of issue what side the aisle you land on, we can agree it's fucked up times. No matter no matter what.

Justin Buduo : 8:52

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Well, that's, that's the thing I keep telling people to is like, be open minded because I'm not 100% Trump, but I don't fuck Hate the guy either. He's kind of a douche. But I mean, there's pros and cons to everything. The media same thing. There's pros and cons to the media Republicans, Democrats, there's pros and cons to all of it. Some people just get so republicanized that they don't see anything good that the democrats doing and vice versa. Same thing with anything going on out there. If you say, oh, there's something underlying behind this people are gonna be like, Oh, you're fucking insane. Or if you'd be like, oh, there's nothing underlying about that people. Same thing. Like, wow, he'd be so close minded. So... I'm Sweden, I stay neutral.Easiest way so...

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 9:37

you know, out of the realms of, of politics and that kind of stuff.

Justin Buduo : 9:42

Yes. Have

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 9:44

have they Is there any word in when Massachusetts gonna start opening stuff up? Because even here in New York their saying on May 15, which is

Justin Buduo : 9:53

that's not gonna happen.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 9:54

Oh, it's 11 days.

Justin Buduo : 9:56

Yeah.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 9:57

They're not gonna o en up instantly, but they're gonna Start slowly.

Justin Buduo : 10:00

Right. well, they were saying originally we're going to open up may for or tomorrow, and then they changed it last week to me change. But he said that he wants to have governor Baker wants to have a plan. Like one of the step programs at Maine and New Hampshire and Connecticut have installed and but he doesn't have any plans set up. So there's no phases happening right now. And he said not until he sees two weeks of constant decline. Is he going to start talking about the phases? If we're anything like Maine or New Hampshire? I think Connecticut as well. Like all these tattoos are in phase three, which is going to be July August, which is fucking insane. Yeah, it's a lot of these. I was gonna say a lot of these people just a lot of these owners don't have the money to sit on to be like, Oh, I can make it to August. No problem. Like, even with these checks that they're giving us like it's it's not doing a damn thing. So like, what I'm doing is I have a buddy who makes t shirts. I got some shirts made up, got some stickers made up, try and do gift certificates. I've seen a couple of artists do. What do you call that? Like the 50 Square bingo thing. Pick a number for 10 bucks.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 11:12

Yea, like a pool?

Justin Buduo : 11:13

And it gives. Yeah, so I mean just something to bring in money because like we all got families we need to provide for them. So we need to figure out a way to make money even like selling commissions and stuff like that.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 11:26

Yeah, I mean, I tattooers It's a business that's not well set up for something for a situation like this. You know, yeah, you're like me, you have to work to

Justin Buduo : 11:39

you have to work to make money and there's no there's no, there's no vacation time. There's no

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 11:44

There's no slush fund sitting around that you take money out of when you're not working.

Justin Buduo : 11:47

Right right. But so it's it's a tough one but I think we will most most of our our artists, we're all fucking assholes. So we should be able to get through this no problem. It's just another thing that We have to deal with

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 12:01

when when it comes time that they that they allow tattoo shops in Massachusetts to reopen. Do you think you're going to go right at it when they say now's the time are you think you're gonna give it your own evaluation that situation?

Justin Buduo : 12:14

That's actually a good one because me and my, my girlfriend and fiance, actually I call her my ex girlfriend because I proposed to her so she counts as an ex now. You're more she's your fiance. Exactly. Yeah. So she's my ex girlfriend. We were actually talking about it and discussing it. It's just it's it's hard to trust people. Whether they're like, because everyone's wants to get in and get tattoo. It doesn't matter if you're sick. I mean, shit. I've had the flu several times where I'm still tattooing. I just put the face mask on. I tell my clients, hey, I'm sick. Do you still want to come in and get tattooed to like, absolutely. Vice versa if my clients sick, I'm like, Look, we're just gonna close the door down, have a private session. I'll put my face mask on. We'll tattoo as long as they can do With it, but you don't know who has this COVID-19 and it's a tough one. It's because like, I want to go gung ho, because I got, I'm getting backed up and it's getting out of control now where I'm gonna have to do like six, seven day weeks, and it's just just to get caught up with people because I can't I can't push them out. It's not fair to them. So it's like, I kind of want to go gung ho, but at the same time, like I have a respiratory disease, so that's put myself in harm's way. And me I'm like pocket I get that I'm invincible kind of mentality. Where my girls like, no, this could literally fucking kill you. So, so we're having that debate whether we're gonna just go like go for it or just like, maybe take a couple weeks off and see see where it goes from there. Watch the records, watch the numbers and, and just hope for the best. But I'll also give it up to my crew to that's at my studio, my tattoo family. If they want to go back like we'll open up So they can go back and take care of their clients. Just as long as everyone's like what we got to watch the entire studio down every day now, where's like the waiting room, like a little sweep a little mop, you're good now it's like the waiting room, you got to spray everything down, you got to spray. I mean, we come equipped knowing how to take care of things like this. We're already certified and all the friggin things that you need to be certified in to know that like, what blood borne pathogens are, how they, how they transfer from surface to surface, how long they live this that the other thing and we know how to clean up, we know how to be clean about things. If we didn't, we'd have a bigger, much bigger problem in the industry than just this. So But yeah, I think it's, I don't know, I just I it's a tough one because like I said, I see people on both sides of the fence to where people want to open up. They want to make that money, but that's what's driving them into the money part. They're not thinking about long term effect of what could possibly come from this but I'm also one of those assholes that are like, it's a little bit stronger than the flu. So I think we can push through this. But that might not be accurate. Who knows? We don't know what the hell's going on anymore. But yeah, I think I don't know what we're gonna do. It's, I think we're just gonna play by ear and just see where we go. Because I mean, if it's July, August that we can't open up till then it's fucking gung ho at that point. But if it's like I said, in two weeks that we can open up then we'll kind of like take a look at it and kind of kind of debate it from there. I'll probably just talk with the rest of the guys at the studio, like I said, see what they want to do. See what the girls want to do. And if we're all on board, okay, well, I can open up.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 15:37

That's fair. Do you have any concern? I mean, with what you're talking about. Now, you gotta you gotta clean even more thoroughly than you normally do. Is there any concern about being able to get hold of cleaning stuff and, you know, gloves masks,disinfectants? Because I mean, it seems like it's, there's a shortage all over the place at that stuff.

Justin Buduo : 15:57

That's that's another good point too, because we donate it off. harshit when this one down, but I do feel like we'd be able to still get get a hold of some stuff. I mean, we still have two gallons of Maticide at the studio, whereas I think we have, I want to say 15 boxes of gloves, two gallons of Maticide, and maybe just a handful of face masks, but it's enough to get us started. So if it lasts us two or three weeks, cool, whatever. I'm hoping within that time, it's like we're trying to plan it out where, like Governor Baker, I'm trying to figure it out when he's gonna say we can go. And that's the big problem right now is he's not given us a definitive answer. Because if that was the case, then we could be like, Alright, now let's start stockpiling the stuff that we need. And that way, it'll be good to go. But like I said, if it's, if it's two weeks out, we've got enough to get us by two or three weeks.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 16:50

So that's, I mean, that's one of the big issues of this whole situation now is that it's a lot of unknown. No one knows. No one knows when stuff is going to open and once that's going to be back to some kind of normal, and it's just probably more unknown than any of us have have ever faced. Oh, yeah, it's in such a widespread amount.

Justin Buduo : 17:09

So like when it comes to comes to like finances and stuff like that I'm usually really planned out. And this is like, through a fucking monkey wrench in the whole thing. I'm just like, I don't know where to fuck I'm going right now, is like, we've been wanting to repaint the kids bedrooms. And it's like, we can do it. But I don't want to spend the money. It's like we have the time to finally do it. But I don't want to waste that money because you don't know how long it's gonna be. So. So there's like you said, there's a bunch of unknowns. And I think that's the most uncomfortable, most stressful part of this whole thing. And I think that's why a lot of people start getting into that depression and like, whatnot, because they're not gonna know what to do with themselves that they want to plan it out. But they can't no one can plan anything out right now. Like, even with, like me and my girl, we're supposed to be getting married this year. And we're supposed to go to New Orleans on holiday. We that's when we were getting married. And now it's like, we have the venue but the venue just closed down. And they even told us to they're like, we'll refund you the money because they're like we don't even know if we're gonna be open in October because right now in New Orleans has been overrun with rats and cockroaches. It's it's a I don't know if you saw the videos, it's insane down there because it really bad audio. It's New Orleans is always getting hit bad for fucking bastards down there, they can't catch the break. So you every time you turn around, something's happening to them down there.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 18:31

Okay, so let me ask you a question about reopening kind of from the other side of the chair or their side of the needle. Do you think that I mean, a lot of people want to get tattooed and a lot of people you know, have a backlog of stuff. But in this time when people when money's kind of tight for everyone, people aren't working you think people are gonna have money to get kicked out and tattooed?

Justin Buduo : 18:49

That's, that's my biggest fear right now is like, because I've always said people will come up friends and family. They'll be like, Oh, it's really cool that you got a business that's successful. You're kind of riding this wave. And it's like, yeah, it's cool. But like I can't, I've never enjoyed being where I'm at in my career. Like, I've always been one of those people. It's like, I can always do better. But at the same time, I always felt like there's going to be a downfall to this that way, it's going to eventually crash. Right now, I feel like this is a big crash in that wave. because like you said, people don't have money right now. I don't know. Like, what's going to happen when the economy opens back up? If people are going to afford it, if people are going to want to do it. I mean, we still get emails every day. People want us to tattoo them underground. They're like, Yeah, can I just sneak into your shop? get a tattoo done blah, blah. But yet now, I'm not gonna arrest that I've already seen what's his face. Shit. I can't think of his name. He just got arrested for tattooing out of the studio. Oh, I didn't hear about Yeah, I think it was. It was in North Carolina. No, is Georgia that's where it was. He went in tattooed in his studio and the fucking police came in. They're like, you can't be doing this. He's like, Well, you can't arrest me. And so they're like, give me a minute and they called up the fucking governor and they're like, what the fuck did we do? And the governor straight told him that your next step is to arrest them. And they fucking arrested a tattoo artist. For a tattoo and out of the studio. There's a guy I'm worried about where I'm tattooing my fiance out of the house, which is like I'm turning back into a kitchen magician over here. Like every time I look out the window I see a cop goes by I'm like, Fuck, here we go. It's gonna get interesting wut no, so far so good. But ya know, there's two there's just too many fucking What is that? What is from the other side of the needle? There's a shit ton of people that still want to get tattooed. I'm lucky enough where I have a backlog of people that are already booked. So I'm not too worried about people coming in. And everyone we talked to that we say, hey, put your tattoo on hold. Not one of them has said I don't want to come in. I can't afford it. They've all said just let me know. I'll be there. You guys open up. So a month and a half of clients that are just like gung ho about it, um, I'm pretty psyched about that. So that's, that's kind of a positive outlook on it. But like I said, Not everyone's gonna be able to, it's not gonna be like what it was, it's gonna take a big hit. And it's gonna suck for all of us. Hopefully, hopefully, we can come out of it. There's gonna be pros and cons to it where I think, like some of the scratches shops on the shops that shouldn't be tattooing. Those guys are gonna end up closing down. The good artists, I don't want to see them close down, but I have a feeling there's gonna be a couple of good local boys that ended up having to close shop, maybe get a job somewhere else, or tattooing somewhere else who knows? But it's like it all depends on the landlords to if the landlords are cool enough to let them skip out on rent or not. So you never know.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 21:51

Lots of variables lots of unknowns

Justin Buduo : 21:53

So many so many fucking shits insane.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 21:56

Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy times to Be short times that no none of us ever thought we'd live through.

Justin Buduo : 22:02

No Holy shit. Like, would have guessed like this, this kind of nonsense would happen like the whole world fucking shut down That that's insane. It's nuts. It's hard. It's hard to wrap your mind around something like on a scale. It's it's very easy. It's it's hopefully it gets eradicated I saw in today I didn't open up the article that just said something about there was a vaccine that actually was created to eliminate the COVID-19 which I thought was really interesting, but it was a Facebook article. Yeah, so it was like that's what I said I didn't do the research. I got stuck up on the what was at the post whoever posted it had said something about it being a bunch of bullshit this that and the other thing and, of course, they started saying that was all underground lies. But it was like a breaking news article from CNN or something like that. But again, I didn't open it. I was having movie time with Kids, so I was like, yeah, I'm watching the Star Wars flick. So

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 23:04

is it driving you crazy? Being home with the kids all day every day?

Justin Buduo : 23:07

No, I actually I fucking love it. Oh, that's it. Yeah, no, it's amazing. It's so good to be able to spend so much time with the kids. Because when I'm tattooing, like I said, we're doing like 1012 hour days. It's good to be able to like finally sit down, relax with them. should even last year but the year before I was coaching both their hockey teams, and it was just like it was non stop. We didn't have a chance to sit down and watch a movie or chance to just go in the yard and throw the ball around or do whatever. Like we're going for fucking walks every day. The kids looking forward to walks and we always bring like, like a hockey stick or basketball or soccer balls on with us. So as we're walking, we're kicking this shit around. We take the dogs for the walks and like the kids are actually working out with us. Which 10 and eight years old, they're working out with us. It's like all right, get on it is awesome.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 23:54

That's good, man. Get 'em into those good habits young.

Justin Buduo : 23:57

Yeah, exactly. And then I'm playing more video games than I ever have. Because they got me into this stuff they're trying to get me into. Not Minecraft, but the other one that I can't even think of what the hell of a name it is. But it's it's on like every system where it's kind of cool because if you have Xbox One, you can actually play against someone who has PlayStation four. Or you can play against someone that's on the computer. So it's like, intermingled in that form. Yeah, so I thought that was kind of awesome. That's pretty wild. Yeah, they're trying to get me to play that and I'm like, I can't because then I'll get hooked on it. And then I'll just I'll be kicking them off the fucking game so I can play.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 24:37

That was a big video game player when I was young. But once games got more involved, and they moved past the 2D scrolling images like Super Mario and Castlevania. That's about as advanced as I could.

Justin Buduo : 24:49

Castlevania was one of the best ones.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 24:51

Yeah. I agree! With that. Let's, uh, let's call it an interview. Cool. And thanks Justin for doing this.

Justin Buduo : 24:59

Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 25:00

My pleasure, man. My pleasure. So, have a good one. We'll talk to you later.

Justin Buduo : 25:05

Definitely Take it easy.

Keith Under Our Skin Podcast : 25:07

Take care man. Transcribed by https://otter.ai