Bondi Local | John Tadrosse

Bondi Local | John Tadrosse

We see John just about every morning at our local café Birichina. He owns and runs the local tattoo parlour Bondi Ink with his wife Wendy.

Melanie had a chat to John about Bondi … and (naturally enough) tattooing.

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John, tell us a little bit about your back story.

Hi guys, my name is John Tadrosse, otherwise known as JT from Bondi Ink. I’m originally from the Pennant Hills area, but I’ve moved around a lot in my life.

I had friends who have had tattoo studios around the place and I thought wow there is a real niche market in the Bondi area. Everybody’s looking beautiful and everybody has got ink, so I thought let’s get this thing happening. It took a while though. That was 7 years go now.

And it’s always pumping!

We used to be down where Wicked Travel is now. We had three chairs there and now we’ve got 8 chairs downstairs and 3 upstairs in the custom studio. My wife Wendy and I are the backbone of the business.

We see you around Bondi quite a bit.

I don’t know if I should class myself like this but I could probably say I’m a Bondi identity now! You can’t miss me, tattoos all over the place, and a good head for radio.

I gather you’ve got a TV show going on about the business.

Prior to the one we’re doing now, we’ve done one for the ABC called Tattoo Tales. It was an 8 episode fly on the wall about what’s going on. It was such a great show. There were no cameras in your face. They were mounted high.

Bondi Ink Tattoo is a series for Channel 10 that is shown on Channel 11. We’re up to episode 7. It’s a bit more reality TV and everybody knows what reality means! I don’t know if I should say this but we all know that it’s not always the truth. There’s a bit of creative editing. It rated as the 5th highest show last week on digital TV. It rated the same as Neighbours and that’s incredible! So we’ve had two series on us on major networks in Australia this year. I’m so proud of that.

How do the guys and girls working there cope with the cameras in their faces? It’s such precise work.

I’ve got to be totally honest, 99.9 percent of people love to get in front of a camera, love to be seen. You’ve seen my shop, it’s a totally open forum, where you can stand out front and watch people getting tattooed. It’s probably one of the first shops in the world to do that. I mean you talk to customers, you talk to the tattooists and they all want to be in the front. They want to be seen. There’s always that bit of pretentiousness!

It’s incredible, such a broad spectrum of people getting tattoos now. And we started this family style tattoo studio. The mystery is gone and you’re not getting tattooed by some big hairy bloke with a cigarette smoking and dropping ash all over you like it used to be.

What is your beat? Where do you hang out?

I go everywhere. I walk down the street and it takes me half an hour, as I say Hi to everybody. Like I say, I am a bit of an identity here!

And I love that about what I do. I love saying hello. I love shaking hands. I love to shake up the stereotypes about a big tattoo guy just coming up to say hello and hugging kids like I’m running for Prime Minister! Maybe I should! I reckon Bob Hawke’s got a couple of tattoos.

We do see you a lot at Birichina and we did meet first at Icebergs.

Yeah, and I train downstairs at the gym at the Icebergs with Maurice who has the restaurant [Icebergs Dining Room and Bar], and Andre who has the gym. It’s a close knit community.

And people think Bondi is so pretentious, but it’s not and it’s nowhere near that. The diversity and the difference in people. We had Ronan Keating and One Direction come in. We’ve had the biggest stars coming in the shop, and I don’t treat them any better or any worse than any Joe who’s come out from Parramatta or Dubbo, because we’re all human beings and we’re all here just to love this life … and to get tattoos! Let’s tattoo: “love this life”.

What are you excited about right now?

I’m excited about the business, about where it’s going. It’s getting bigger and stronger. Especially after the TV shows.

Just everything in life. My family. I’ve got a wife, I’ve got a daughter and I’ve got a son, and I love ‘em all. Our life is here [in Bondi], the shop and togetherness.

If you’re not excited about life … there’s serious issues out there. You’ve just got to put the news on for five minutes and it does your head in. You gotta really be positive in these times. Coz it’s not really nice times for a lot of people. You know people are struggling out there. Whether it be drugs and alcohol or whatever. We just heard all those cases in Queensland - those women getting murdered. It’s just so wrong. My heart goes out to all those women and families. So many people get affected by it. I’m opposite in life. I’m all about giving and sharing, and that’s why I think we’re such a successful brand.

What are you reading and or watching at the moment?

I am reading to my kids. I’ve got a 7 year old daughter and an 11 year old son.

What I’m watching now, it’s a bit ironic, is a bit of reality TV. I’ve virtually got to watch what my wife wants to watch, which is Real Housewives or whatever! She should be the real housewife of Bondi! I gotta tell you that much. Oh my God yeah.

I watch a lot of sports, the rugby league. My team’s still in the finals. Roosters! You’re for South’s? We’re mortal enemies!

Motto?

My personal motto is: “Give respect to get respect.” That’s what I teach my son and my daughter. You’ve got to give it to get it back. And it goes in all facets of life. Be respectful. If there’s a lady (on the bus, say), get up, let her sit down. And I do that, that’s what I was taught. I think that’s where many of our problems are. We’re not teaching our kids that. Respect is such a huge thing.

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Full interview on SoundCloud below or HERE