Good Time Charlie's Last Tattoo

Charlie Cartwright is considered to be one of the forefathers of the single needle, black and grey movement of the late seventies and early eighties. He began tattooing kids in his neighborhood using the stick poke method, but learned how to use an electric tattoo machine at the Pike in Long Beach in the early 1970's.Never too keen on standardized flash and color tattoos that most tattoo shops offered at the time, Cartwright opened up shop in Whittier, CA that would specialized in custom black and grey work applied with the single needle method, which was mainly used in the California penal system. In 1975, Cartwright took on Jack Rudy, and together they began to satisfy the growing demand of the primarily Chicano population for their signature, photorealistic and professional "prison" style tattoos.