Meet Fip Buchanan | Tattoo Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Fip Buchanan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Fip, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I’d work for other tattoo shops for aprox. five years and decided it was time to open my own place, with my partner Patty Kelley. We opened Avalon Tattoo in 1989 in the Pacific Beach area of San Diego.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started tattooing in 1979, it became my livelihood in the fall of 1984. I’ve drawn since I was about 2 years old. My mother was a great artist and always encouraged me in that direction. I’ll be forever grateful for that.
I was drawn to tattooing because it was such a raw and unusual art form, or at least it was, in 1979. The more I got into it, the more I enjoyed it.
Red Schuster was my first real mentor. I met him in Pittsburgh, Pa. in 1982. I was attending the Art Institute of Pgh. Through him I became aware of my 3 main tattoo influences – Ed Hardy, Bob Roberts, and Jack Rudy. Red had photo albums from tattoo conventions that show cased their work. Seeing what could be done with tattooing really kept me pushing forward to achieve my goals. I wanted to be able to tattoo at that level.
When Avalon opened in 1989 there was not much custom tattooing going on in San Diego. The large Navy presence here was what kept tattooing alive for decades in San Diego. There were always great tattooists here, but it was mostly about applying standard tattoo images as efficiently as possible on those hectic payday weekends. At Avalon our ideal was to do as much custom tattooing as possible, that was our mission. And we achieved it! Once people were aware of us, we were always busy and needed to add more artists to our crew.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
In San Diego, the Zoo and Balboa Park are always great to visit. The Gaslamp District downtown has lots of great dining and clubs. Old Town is a really nice place to visit too.
The Casbah is a great music venue.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Patty Kelley was crucial in the opening of Avalon Tattoo.

Website: https://Avalontattootwo.com

Instagram: @fipbuchanan

Image Credits
Connal Brown- my portrait b&w
Dewayne Norton – color portrait
All others by me, Fip Buchanan