Nick Blanco
You got into tattooing fairly recently, right? Can you tell us about how you got into the lifestyle?
I grew up in a Navy family so I was always surrounded by tattoos my whole life. I started skating when I was 12 and mainly focused on that my whole life. I started getting tattooed heavily when I was young growing up in Florida at Inksmith & Rogers but never expressed myself artistically until way later in my life when I started painting graffiti at 29. I got into graffiti through a bunch of Hawaiian homies I started skating with in LA, and quickly realized that tattoo imagery was the only type of art I was ever drawn to. It took a while and it was a crazy path, but that actually brought me to tattooing.
How did you end up at Five Ball in Venice?
Fiveball is owned by my homie and mentor, Frank Ball Jr. I trip out really hard when I think back to how lucky my life worked out. I grew up in Jacksonville Beach and was very close with Paul Hart in those years. Paul’s older brother Daniel was a sick skateboarder as well but got into some trouble and got sent out to California to finish school. By complete chance, while Daniel was in California, he picked up a 15 year old Frank Ball Jr hitchhiking on the way back from Coachella. Frank moved in with Daniel and was already tattooing at that time and did a full verse from a Biggie Smalls song on my other close homie, Will Watson, who had just moved from JAX to LA. I came out on a trip to skate when I was three months into being 18 and already had one of my arms completely tattooed. I went and got my chest tattooed by Frank in Newport Beach that trip and then never spoke to Frank again and our lives carried on. Fast forward 12 years and now I’ve been in LA, skating and bartending for a long time and trying to figure out how to learn to tattoo. I came to get tattooed by Frank again in the time when I was wanting to learn how to tattoo and was honestly so intimidated and amazed by his tattooing that I had no plans on asking him to teach me or that I even wanted to learn how to tattoo. It happened to come up organically and I never left the shop after that day. I’m forever grateful for Frank and to be here in Venice Beach with him.
Do you prefer taking walk ins or working on existing projects by appointment?
There is no preference to me, I love all forms of tattooing. I love working on a project that I have time on and seeing it get shaped and continuously improve. I do feel a lot of pride from tattooing walk ins as well. To be able to have some one walk in and give you an idea and you draw it up in 20 minutes in such a beautiful and badass way that it’s deserving to be displayed on someone’s skin for the rest of their life is an incredible feat in my eyes.
What sort of subjects do you prefer tattooing these days?
Like I said, I have no preference and love tattooing everything. Frank is badass across the board in every department so I’ve gotten to see every style of tattooing first hand through him. I take pride in bouncing back and forth between color traditional and fine line black and grey.
How much time do you get to skate vs having to work at the shop?
I spend usually 80-100 hours a week at the shop, tattooing is my entire life now. I live right behind Stoner Park and have been making an effort to go at least once a week on my day off. Gotta get back on it, but even taking a bunch of time off the board while tattooing I haven’t lost too much. If anything, the time away has motivated me to skate. I just need to take care of my body a little bit better before I get back into skating regularly.
What's a dream flip-in or flip-out combo for you?
Back tail and crook for sure. I’ve done all sorts of things close but never a solid kickflip back tail backside flip, or kickflip crook nollie flip.
Is it fair to say that shorts + no shirt is your go to outfit to skate in? What's the secret to the look?
No secret, I just like to not feel restricted when I’m skating. I also sweat a lot from growing up in Florida. In my head, there’s no sense in wasting a shirt sweating it out in five minutes.
What's something you've learned from skateboarding that you couldn't have learned doing anything else?
Definitely persistence. You can figure anything out if you have enough tries and pay attention to what you’re doing.
Originally published in Issue 6 - July 2025