Under the gun

Josh Brown’s first tattoo was a tribal design on his left shoulder. Almost two decades later, it’s overshadowed by a band of tattoos that cover almost every inch of his arm.
“There was a whole mystique back then,” said Brown, 38. “There weren’t college girls getting tattoos. It was bikers and guys getting skulls.”
When Brown first got inked, tattoo shops were rare and mostly underground, below the radar of health codes and sterilization standards.
“There was no sterilization, it was just a bucket and a sponge. They sometimes used the same needle for a week,” Brown said.
Brown, who opened James River Tattoo Company on Main Street in June, said the quality and safety of tattooing has improved significantly over the past two decades.
Born and raised in Amherst County, Brown has been tattooing for 18 years, including jobs at tattoo parlors in Charlottesville and Richmond.
Vintage tattoo flash covers the walls of James River Tattoo Company. Old posters yellowed by cigarette smoke depict sailor stars, skulls and daggers, eagles and American flags.  
“I wanted to do like a old, classic, ’50s-style, kind of like a barber shop,” said Brown.
He was drawn to the storefront next to Oxide Pottery because the rent was cheap and he wanted to be downtown, near the art galleries and urban culture.
For Brown, the décor of his shop reflects his favorite style: classic tattoos. One of his sayings is “Bold will hold.”
Brown has tattooed people from all walks of life, from preachers to drug addicts to 60-year-old ladies. The attitude and energy they bring to the shop can affect a tattoo, Brown says.
 “Being a tattooer, you have to be a marriage counselor, a philosopher, an artist,” Brown said. “You’re dealing with their life, basically, on a small level.”
Though his clients often spin elaborate stories about their tattoo choices (heartbreak, religious epiphanies, major life changes), Brown mostly chose his own for aesthetic appeal.
“I just got things I like. There’s no deep meaning. I didn’t see a shooting star and decide I was going to get one.”
He learned how to tattoo by spending countless hours under the tattoo machine, watching the techniques of professional artists.
In the beginning, he could endure eight-hour sessions under the gun. Now, the pain gets to him after about 45 minutes.
Brown also began tracing tattoo designs on pen and paper to learn how the images come together.
Since childhood, Brown had a passion and aptitude for drawing. Before tattooing became his full-time job, he worked as an illustrator and designer for an advertising company in downtown Lynchburg.
In time, Brown began tattooing his friends, learning by trial and error.
“You really have no idea what you’re doing when you start,” Brown said. “You’re just diving into a swimming pool and you hope it has water in it.”
Brown loves working with a “living canvas.”
“The largest part of tattooing, I believe, is confidence,” he said. “You really got to have that I’m going to do it attitude to really grasp it.”