In 1940, Jack was stationed at Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Honolulu and decided to get a tattoo. His fellow Navy friends had been getting tattoos. Just as Jack was about to go get his, he saw his friend’s tattoo that had gotten infected. The sight of pus and redness changed his mind.
A year later, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Ninety minutes after it began, the attack was over: 2,403 Americans were dead, including 68 civilians; another 1,178 were wounded. Eighteen ships were sunk, including five battleships. Nearly half of the American fatalities – 1,102 men – were caused by the explosion and sinking of battleship Arizona. Jack was among the survivors.
At the age of 86, Jack became newly inspired to get tattooed by his granddaughter. He decided he wanted to get a tattoo of the Pearl Harbor Survivor logo. He had seen a tattoo on his friend’s ‘daughter’, who happens to be our apprentice, Jenny Stench. It was a tattoo of a safety pin that she has on her wrist done by Danielle Oberosler in 2005. Something about it inspired him. So, he asked Jenny to book an appointment making him Danielle’s oldest client. Not able to get Jenny’s tattoo out of his mind, Jack later came back and got a matching safety pin tattoo on his wrist. He tells people “it holds him together”.