NERD INK: Dan Vasquez

Hello again universe! Week two of Nerd Ink features a pretty wide array to have on one person. Mr Vasquez is covered with an array of old movie monsters and video game characters. Being a fellow Pokemon junkie my favorite piece is the Squirtle, he’s lean, he’s mean, and this one likes brawling. Without further rambling, here is Mr. Vasquez.



Age: 27
Hometown: Sacramento, CA

Hobbies: I love hanging out with my wife and my animals. Two cats, one dog and they are all girls with the names Battle Cat, He-Man and She-Ra, I like to hang out with my friends as well. Going to the gym is a must and I enjoy reading comics, watching movies and collecting too many things.

Artist/Shop: The sock was done by 3 different artist at two different shops. My Squirtle and my b-movie sleeve were done by Jon McAffee at Heart of Gold Tattoo.

Total Hours in the Chair: Couldn’t tell you. I have spent way too many hours in a chair, but I still keep going back.

Inspiration: The sock was one of the first full pieces I got. It began as a bad idea for a city scape and a few ugly stars. I’ve always been a huge Alien Hominid fan and the city scape reminded me of the games art style, So I decided to go space theme and finish out the piece with a few of the alien hominids. I still play the game to this day, altough through the Xbox arcade and no longer a game cube.

The Squirtle was a piece I decided to get with one of my best friends Chris Truxal. He and I have always been huge Pokemon fans (like I said, I love collecting things). The aforementioned discussion led to us getting Pokemon tattoos. It was nerdy, like the both of us and it added elements of what we stand for. Mine is a Squirtle with two X’s on his fists and the phrase “Bring the Ruckus” around it and Chris has a Jolteon with 3 X’s behind it saying “make it rain”.

Bring The Ruckus


Finally, I love movies. More specifically, I love bad b movies and monster movies. They helped shape whoI am today, which is a giant nerd. I mean my favorite Christmas movie is Gremlins, which kind of explains itself. My sleeve is an homage to some of the movies that I loved to watch growing up. It is made up of the following movies: Creature from the Black Lagoon, This Island Earth, The Inivisible Man, Phantasm, House of Wax (original), Creepshow “Father’s Day” (in progress), The Mummy (Hammer Films, and in progress) and Army of Darkness (in progress). I still watch these movies to this day and if I could, I would make movies for a living.