Fast Talk: How This Tattoo Artist Became A Tech Entrepreneur

Fred Giovannitti is that rarity: a man who divides his time between two extremely disparate careers. Giovannitti makes his living giving tattoos to discerning customers in Las Vegas, but he also spends a considerable amount of time as the creative director at Vor-Tek Recovery Solutions, a young company with a mission to engineer new ways of cleaning the world’s oceans and waterways. Vor-Tek was a finalist in a recent X Challenge dedicated to faster cleanup of oil spills, partly due to Giovannitti’s innovative designs.

FAST COMPANY: Do you lead a double life?

FRED GIOVANNITTI: I sure do. Half of it is living here in Bend, a small town in Oregon, enjoying time with my children and family while working on projects for Vor-Tek, whose mission is to clean the world’s oceans of oil, plastic, and pollution. Then I fly to Las Vegas for two weeks out of every month for a full schedule of 12-hour days, and I live my life as a well-sought-after tattoo artist in Vegas. The tattoo shop I own is called Tatlantis Allied Arts and Sciences.

What are the “allied arts and sciences”?

We do a lot of tinkering over there, building my prototypes, the things I invent. For example, a footswitch is used in tattooing. When you’re tattooing, you have one foot on its heel at a 45-degree angle, and that’s putting a lot of stress on the calf. I needed something a little more flush to the ground. I created this footpad that’s flush to the ground, and all you have to do is apply very slight pressure, and it releases all the tension from the calves.

How did you end up joining forces with Ashley Day, Vor-Tek’s CEO?

It was a typical consultation day in 2007, and Ashley came in. A lot of my clients come in to cover up bad decisions, tattoos they had in the past. He had this strange geometric tribal lizard that was just off the wall of some tattoo shop, on his chest. We covered it up with a large filigreed piece based on a tribute to his wife and two daughters. About the third session, we got into a conversation about goals and aspirations. He started to fill me in on the problem of the world’s gyres, and specifically the Pacific Vortex, which he described as this giant patch of garbage the size of two Texases put together. The next session, I said, “You know what we talked about last time? I came up with something.” I sent him some pictures, and he was pretty excited, seeing as I wasn’t in the industry, I wasn’t an engineer or anything. His exact words were that his best engineers couldn’t come up with that. We started working together to build a prototype of the marine particle skimmer, a device to pick up small particles of plastic. One modification led to another, until we made one focused on oil.

What’s the status of Vor-Tek now?

It’s still a company in its infancy. I’m not getting paid anything; the work I do for that is purely out of the hopes of payment in the future, and if it doesn’t pay, it’s still a good cause. Right now we’re seeking investors, and are using the X Prize to get our foot in the door.

Are you ever surprised to find the trajectory you’re taking?

I was surprised to fall into tattooing to begin with. I was not interested in tattoos in the beginning. I was into graphic design, image mapping, and stuff like that. In 1992, a friend asked me to design him a tattoo. I was shocked; none of my friends were the kinds of guys who’d get a tattoo. I said sure, and designed him something. He came back and showed it to me, and I was outraged at what happened to my artwork. I said that if anyone else ever wanted a tattoo design from me, I’d have to be the one doing it. The whole time I’ve never fit into the industry. I’m not the guy covered in tattoos, listening to death metal.

You do have a few tattoos, though.

I have quite a few, mostly on my legs. When I got started, I didn’t want to tattoo anyone and ruin them for life, so a lot of my first tattoos I did on my legs, places I could reach. I’m completely self-taught.

But how did you manage the transition from tattoo artist to creative director at a tech company? How are the two related?

What tattooing has taught me is the whole concept of producing a creative project by organizing the thoughts and visions of, say, two or more minds--mine and somebody else’s--to where I can pull a design out of their head, by asking the right questions. I help others see on paper what they can just barely see behind their eyelids. That’s my specific talent in this, and that’s turned out to be really helpful in the industry I’m sharing my time with right now.

What is it about your process that lets you pull designs out of people’s heads?

I’m very picky with who I tattoo. Throughout my consultations, I ask the right questions to find out if this is someone I want to hang out with, because I have to spend three hours at a time, two times a month, for months on end. Basically the relationships I put myself in with the client is a co-parent relationship, and the tattoo is our child. If I’m gonna put all my love into it, the co-parent has to be someone I can be in a relationship with.

Can I afford you?

I start people off at $150 an hour, for the first six hours. After that, I bring it down to $100 an hour. I know a lot of artists charge more, but once I get into that relationship with a client, we’re friends, we’re in a relationship together. I would love to not have to charge for this; it almost feels as if I’m doing something wrong, when I’m applying so much love into this piece. Hopefully if Vor-Tek starts to grow out of its infancy and starts to pay off, I can continue tattooing but not charge anymore.

Miami Ink Tattoo Designs: Summer Is Hottest Time Of The Year For Tattoos. With Hundreds Of 2c Keywords From Google Miami Ink Is Easy To Profit From! Start Your Campaigns Now And Cash In This Summer!

Get Rid Tattoo - Natural Tattoo Removal Solution: Get Rid Tattoo Is A Digital Guide On How To Remove Unwanted Tattoo Using Natural Products Without Any Side Effects. Easy To Rank, Less Competition, Amazing Conversions & Very Low Refunds.

Printmytattoo.com - Only Tattoo Site With Recurring Commissions!: Get Lifetime Commissions For Each Customer You Send! $20 Per Month Commission! Our $1 Trial Converts 1 Out Of 70 Hops! Great Bonuses, Almost No Refunds!

John Waters Opens Up About the Death of Artist Mike Kelley (Exclusive)

"At first I was hoping it was an art piece. It could have been," Waters tells THR about the death of the influential installation artist on Feb. 1.

Mike Kelley, one of the most important artists of the last quarter century, died on Tuesday, Feb. 1, at his home in South Pasadena, a suspected suicide brought on by depression. The 57-year-old artist -- whose work was collected by such entertainment world names as filmmaker John Waters and entertainment attorney Alan Hergott -- was known for his subversive work in multiple mediums, including drawing, painting, performance, video and sculpture. "He was the best, a bit like Jesus I’ve been thinking," conceptual artist John Baldessari, a former teacher of Kelley's at the California Insitute for the Arts, told The Hollywood Reporter.

THR spoke with Waters as well as a number of other collectors about Kelley and his work, which included such emblematic pieces as the 1982 performance piece "Monkey Island," which featured inflatable bladders and monkey drawings inspired by a trip to the Los Angeles Zoo, a video collaboration with artist Paul McCarthy in 1992 based on the children's book Heidi in which domestic violence was represented with rubber dolls, and 1987's "More Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid," a forlorn collection of old hand-made stuffed animals and afghan blankets bought at thrift stores and yard sales.

Waters said in a phone interview: "Like everybody, I'm completely shocked. He was my favorite living artist. I really hate that I have to change that category now. It seems like he was at the height of his career: the biggest galleries, great work, great reviews, an international retrospective. I always thought his work was about dysfunction but I always thought humor and wit would save him. Sometimes you don't know how people feel underneath. At first I was hoping it was an art piece. It could have been. But unfortunately it's a very sad thing. I loved everything he did. I look at his work everywhere.”

Indeed, among the Kelley works the filmmaker owns are: Dirty Mirror (1997), which hangs on the living room wall of Waters' New York apartment. The mirror, as Waters describes it in his 2011 book Role Models, has "disgusting leftover cocaine lines painted in acrylic. A bloody hep-C trace can even be noticed as you look at the repulsive stain that totally obscures the mirror's reflections of the viewer, not that you'd want to see your face after a night like this. What a terrible drug-over this artwork suggests: reckless, misleading moments of chemical joy that seem so sour an hour later."

Also in his New York pad, above his writing desk, hangs one of Kelley’s Garbage Drawings (1988). Waters in his book calls it "isolated refuse from the original Sad Sack cartoons that features fumes of filth that I hope will inspire my screenplay or book ideas."

Meanwhile, Kelley's Reconstructed History (1989) "defiles" Waters' library in Baltimore. For the piece, the artist took a page from a history book that depicts the signing of the Declaration of Independence and wrote "BARF" on it. Writes Waters: "The same thing that all gifted and pissed-off kids did in high school, hoping to turn their rage into art." He later adds: “I love how mad Mike's work can make some people. Isn't that the job of contemporary art? To infuriate? The real naysayers who can't see the reverse beauty of Mike's sculptures or paintings should be outraged because they secretly know that his art does hate them and they deserve it.”

Other collectors weighed in about the loss of the artist.

Collector Eli Broad, founder of the Broad Art Foundation, which owns 15 works by Kelley:

"Mike Kelley was one of the most admired artists of his generation. In his lifetime, through his own work as well as his support for young artists, he both shaped and witnessed the transformation of Los Angeles into a leading capital for contemporary art. We are honored to include him in our collection, and we are shocked and saddened by this profound loss."

PHOTOS: Biggest Hollywood Splurges

Entertainment attorney and collector Alan Hergott:

"I admired him and collected his works. We gave three sculptures by Mike to MOCA. He was a fierce advocate for art and artists, and championed many artists who he thought were underappreciated. His contribution to the L.A. art scene, both through his art and through his teaching, was immense, and he will be missed."

Los Angeles County Museum of Art trustee Nicolas Berggruen, the chairman of private investment company Berggruen Holdings:

“He had the deepest understanding of human alienation … too much so at the end. This resulted in the most powerful of art,” said

Maria Arena Bell, co-chair of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the head writer and co-executive producer of The Young and the Restless:

"Mike Kelley was an essential L.A. artist whose worked explored our childhood universe and our psyche in astonishing ways. He will be sorely missed."

Stephanie Barron, senior curator of modern art at LACMA"

"Mike had an enormous appetite for all kinds of art. He was unendingly curious. He worked incredibly hard at his craft and he was never afraid to think really big. I don't think artists like that come around very often. He had an ability to fuse art and music and popular culture in ways that managed to disturb our sense of decorum. He was very intense, unflinchingly honest and I always came away from conversations with him just awed by the breadth of his intelligence. He zeroed in on what interested him, whether it was literature or film or science, high art, low art, and he had an amazing capacity to pursue interesting ideas."

Photography Posing Secrets: A Resource For Posing A Model For The Camera. Never Be Stuck For A Pose Again.

A Walk Into Abstracts - Ultimate Abstract Artist Resource: Learn Tips And Techniques Of 58 Artists As They Explain The Process They Used To Create 108 Abstract Paintings. 369 Pages, 108 Full Color Abstract Paintings. Nothing Like This Exists Anywhere Else.

Jessica Biel's New Ring – Is It a Movie Prop?

Jessica Biel has some new bling, but don't get too excited: It's not from Justin!

The actress, who has yet to be spotted wearing an engagement sparkler, was sporting a ring on the set of her new movie Emmanuel and the Truth About Fishes, filming in L.A. Friday, but it's just for the role.

The thriller, which also stars Alfred Molina, is reportedly about a woman who develops an obsession with her new neighbor who resembles the woman's dead mother.

Off-camera, Biel has been noticeably spotted without any engagement ring. At the Golden Globes, she wore a ton of Tiffany & Co. jewelry – including a diamond ring in platinum – but her left ring finger was bare. The actress made other public appearances, including a party at the Chateau Marmont, sans ring that weekend as well.

Timberlake, 31, proposed to Biel, 29, during the couple's annual vacation in Montana with a custom-designed ring, a source confirmed to PEOPLE in January.

Buy The Perfect Engagement Ring: You Only Have One Shot At This, You Cannot Afford To Get It Wrong! The Engagement Ring Symbolises The Most Important Relationship Of Your Life.. Our New Ebook Helps You Make The Right Decisions In Getting The Correct Ring And Saving Yourself A Fortune!

Daniel Radcliffe Admits Being Drunk While Filming Harry Potter Scenes

We'd like to buy a trend.

Less than a week after Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak admitted to being drunk at work, news of another celebrity who has revealed that he, too, was under the influence in front of the camera, is making the rounds.

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe tells the British celebrity magazine Heat that he went to work on the set while drunk.

But unlike Sajak's lighthearted account of margaritas with Vanna White on filming breaks, Radcliffe, 22, shares a darker experience.

"I went into work still drunk," he tells the magazine. "I can point to many scenes where I'm just gone. Dead behind the eyes. I have a very addictive personality. It was a problem."

Stressing that he didn't drink at work, Radcliffe adds that, "People with problems like that are very adept at hiding it. It was bad. I drank a lot and it was … nightly."

The actor has said that he no longer drinks. "You either have to change something," he tells Heat, "or give into that shame."

Dui Process, Clear Your Drunk Driving Record: Information On How To Clear Your Dui/dwi Conviction Record.

Inside Demi Moore's Dangerous Desperation to 'Stay Young and Skinny'

Never shy about flaunting her bikini body onscreen and off, Demi Moore had long been regarded as Hollywood's most age-defying beauty.

But as the actress approaches her 50th birthday – and her marriage to Ashton Kutcher, 33, began to crumble – several sources tell PEOPLE in this week's cover story that the 49-year-old star battled deep feelings of insecurity. In fact, sources say the star was barely eating and partying wildly before her drug-fueled breakdown.

"As Demi got older, she convinced herself that she needed to stay young and skinny to remain attractive to her husband," says a source who knows the former couple.

Continues the source: "She needed reassurance all the time that she was hot and sexy."

PHOTOS: Ashton & Demi: Portrait of a Marriage

Another source says that Moore, who is now seeking treatment following her Jan. 23 hospitalization, "was always fixated on being young. And the only thing that tied her to that, as she got older, was her marriage to a younger guy and hanging around young people."

Skinny Copycat: Unique & Weird Fat Loss Method - Video Sells With Real Interesting Content .

Jamie Lynn Spears: I’m Afraid of Not Being a Good young girls and the mothers

Jamie Lynn Spears may be kicking her music career into high gear, but says her number one priority is still her daughter Maddie Briann, 3½.

“These days, the only thing I’m afraid of is not being a good mom,” Spears, 20, tells Glamour in their March issue. “As long as Maddie is healthy and she loves me, the rest doesn’t matter.”

She’s been taking performance advice from her older sister, Britney, and says motherhood has helped to bridge the 10-year age gap between them.

“Maddie loves her Aunt Britney’s songs,” according to the younger Spears, who adds that her little girl often has playdates with cousins Preston and Jayden.

“She loves dancing and singing and all of that. I definitely think music is in her genes.”

Spears said she’s using her own music to be honest about her pregnancy and how she feels about being a young single mother.

“That’s been the coolest thing — realizing that it’s okay to just be myself and really tell my story,” she tells the magazine. “I expect the scrutiny. The last time anyone heard anything of me, I was 16 and pregnant. All I can do is be my best — there will always be people who will never like me.”

As a teen, Spears says, she was embarrassed to see a doctor and ask for birth control — even more so because of her position as the star of Nickelodeon show Zoey 101.

“I was 16. I’d had one boyfriend. It doesn’t make it perfect or all right. But I was judged for something that probably most everyone does,” she notes. ”I was young. I was in love. I was like every other teenager, except I had this last name. And I made a decision that is forever my decision.”

But the backlash that Spears experienced when she announced that she was expecting still stings.

“I had to make a decision that I could sleep with every night,” she explains. “I did feel responsible for the young girls and the mothers who I probably confused and let down. I apologize for that. But I wasn’t trying to glamorize teen pregnancy. I hated when [the tabloids] said that. Everybody is dealt a hand of cards. It was my choice to play them the way I played them. But the hateful comments hurt.”

Spears soon found herself under the watchful eye of the media and moved from Los Angeles back to her home state of Louisiana. In June 2008, at age 17, she delivered her daughter.

“I just wanted to get away from it as much as I could … move to a town in the middle of nowhere and just raise my child. All I could be was a good mother. If anybody had anything to say after that, there was nothing I could do,” recalls Spears. “I was very OCD about Maddie at first. I didn’t want anybody to watch her or touch her. I wanted to do it all myself. I breastfed for almost a year; I couldn’t leave her at all.”

Though Spears and fiancé Casey Aldridge split in 2010, they are both fully committed to raising their daughter.

“I do wonder about how [Maddie] is going to feel about the fact that I was young when I had her and that her father and I aren’t together anymore,” she admits. “It’s sad because my and Casey’s love had to turn into an adult relationship so quickly. There’s a slim chance of two young people making it through high school and all that drama, but making it as parents?”

“We tried,” she says of her relationship with Aldridge, who takes care of their daughter one weekend a month. “We really wanted to do it right. We loved each other. I will love him as Maddie’s father until the day I die.”

As for dating? Spears says that’s not her number-one concern right now.

“I’ve been on dates here and there, going to dinner or a movie, but nothing further than that. I’m a mother first,” she explains. “I have a little girl, and until I’m serious about someone, he’s not going to be around her. … The one thing that does get me excited is one day having that relationship. I look forward to that — I really do.”

A MP3 Download - Instant Baby Sleep Sound Track: How To Put Your Baby To Sleep In 20 Seconds! The Miracle Mothers Have Been Praying For. A High-need Product That Mothers Buy On The Spot.

Leslie Carter Suffered Apparent Overdose: Report

Leslie Carter, the 25-year-old sister of Nick and Aaron Carter, suffered an apparent overdose and had been taking medication for depression, according to a police report released Thursday.

Leslie, who was an aspiring singer, died on Tuesday in upstate New York. An official cause of death is pending toxicology tests.

Her stepmother, Ginger Carter, told authorities that Leslie had "a long history of mental illness" and seemed depressed the morning before she died, according to an incident report from the Chautauqua County sheriff.

Leslie was staying at her father's house with her 10-month-old baby. She had coffee that morning on the porch with her stepmother and complained that she was "not feeling great," the report says.

She then went to the bathroom and stayed in there so long that Ginger became concerned. Ginger spoke to Leslie through the door and found out that Leslie had fallen in the shower.

Ginger then helped Leslie lie down in bed and Leslie appeared to fall asleep. At one point, Ginger brought Leslie's baby into the bedroom "in the hopes that [Leslie] would wake up and play with the baby."

"Ginger stated that [Leslie] did not wake up but seemed to be okay and just sleeping," says the report. "Ginger states that she looked at [Leslie] and she had all the color to her skin and was breathing. Ginger took the baby out of the room and closed the door."

Leslie's father came home around 4:16 p.m. and Leslie "was found in the bedroom not breathing or responding," says the report. Robert attempted CPR and then 911 was called. Leslie was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Authorities had found near Leslie medication to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and anxiety, as well as a muscle relaxant.

Authorities later interviewed Ginger, who "appeared to be under the influence of an unknown drug" and had "slurred speech, pin-point pupils, glassy eyes and kept falling asleep."

Ginger said she had taken as many as six pills, including possibly Xanax, and as her police interview continued the officer became concerned that Ginger was at risk of an overdose.

"Ginger stated that she is only supposed to take four [pills] but Robert gave her an extra one because of Leslie passing away," says the report, which does not say whether Ginger received medical attention.

Co-parenting Nightmare: Are You Co-parenting With Someone Who Is Crazy, Diagnosed With Mental Illness Or A Substance Abuser? Are You Constantly In Court Fighting Over Child Custody Or Visitation Issues? Learn Strategies To Help You And Your Children Cope With A Tough Situation.