As Featured In: Chris Cockrill, San Diego Tattoo Artist
Every so often a magazine or a local outlet asks about the work, the shop, or the machines I build. I am always a little surprised, and always happy to talk. Here are the interviews and features worth reading if you want to know more about the person who would be doing your tattoo.
SDVoyager
Life & Work with Chris Cockrill of San Diego (2026)
A conversation about how I got started in 1998, landing at Remington Tattoo in North Park, and why I still build things by hand. This one ran on the homepage as part of their Inspiring Stories series.
SDVoyager
2026 Inspiring Stories Series
Earlier Feature
Art & Life with Chris Cockrill
An earlier sit-down covering my start in Houston, the apprenticeship, and the three styles I keep coming back to: traditional American, Japanese, and black and gray.
long form interview
Tattoo Artist Magazine: Exclusive Feature
When TAM relaunched its long-form interviews, they asked me to sit down and talk about building coil machines by hand, tuning, and how the tools feed back into the tattooing. It went deeper than most.
UNDER THE SKIN PODCAST
Inside Tattoo Machines: The Craft Behind Them
A long conversation on how tattoo machines actually work, coils versus pens and rotaries, breaking a machine in through real tattooing, and why knowing your tools still matters. A little 90s shop culture and apprenticeship talk mixed in. Not a gear review.
Also listed in the TrueLine Directory, a listing of tattooer-owned supply and machine businesses run by people actually in the craft.
Chris Cockrill is a San Diego tattoo artist at Remington Tattoo in North Park, tattooing since 1998 and building custom coil machines by hand.