He rose to fame at the height of the paparazzi era in the early 1990s.
But tattoo artist Ami James, the star of Miami Ink, NY Ink, Ink Master, and most recently The Tattoo Shop, has revealed that he hates Hollywood and refuses to tattoo celebrities.
Despite being a celebrity, the 50-year-old doesn’t like working with celebrity clients and often passes them on to other artists when they pass his salons in New York, Miami, London and Cork, Ireland.
He told Daily Mail Australia that his dislike stems from bad experiences with self-indulgent stars who like to complain about life in the spotlight while getting tattooed.
“I have no desire to sit there and talk to some Hollywood jerk about how hard his life is,” he said.
Rose to fame at the height of the paparazzi era in the early 2000s, but tattoo artist Ami James, the star of Miami Ink, has revealed that she hates Hollywood and refuses to tattoo celebrities.
Despite being a celebrity, the 50-year-old doesn’t like working with celebrity clients and often passes them on to other artists when they pass his salons.
“I don’t feel like hearing anything…they’re living in a narrow world and, you know, kind of a fucking bubble, like it’s like my life in some way.
And we have nothing in common. And I just choose to be me. I have no interest in it.
“Usually when they contact me about tattooing I send them over to one of the guys in the shop and let them take care of it.”
“Most of them (celebrities) are really hard to deal with.”
Ami said that he would rather tattoo a normal person, adding that he is much more interested in the art than the person.
‘I prefer to tattoo the guy from the cemetery, the garbage man. I prefer to get a working class tattoo, because I come from the working class,’ he said.
Despite starring in several reality shows, Ami said she doesn’t really like being on TV and tries to avoid the glitz and glamor that comes with it.
“I despise Hollywood, I despise everything about it, I don’t participate in it,” he said.
Ami spoke to Daily Mail Australia at the Australian Tattoo Expo (pictured), which ran from March 10-12 at the Sydney International Convention Centre.
While Ami is grateful for the opportunities that fame has given him, such as traveling the world, the biggest drawback for him is losing much of his privacy.
‘It’s not my life. I’m just an artist and I love doing what I do. And I have never stopped tattooing, not even when I could.
It’s just what I’ve always wanted to do. It’s not that I only tattoo, but that’s just my passion. That’s what I love to do. That’s what I’m here for.
‘I hate doing TV, which is really weird because I still do TV.
“But I mean, there are two different types of people: the people who make TV because they want to become famous and the people who make TV because it helps their business because you’re smart enough to realize how much it helps your business grow.
“And through that, you can open up different channels.”
Ami spoke to Daily Mail Australia at the Australian Tattoo Expo, which ran from March 10-12 at the Sydney International Convention Centre.
While he said he was grateful for the opportunities fame has given him, such as traveling the world, the biggest drawback for him is losing much of his privacy.
“The worst thing that has happened to being known is that you lose your privacy,” he said.
“People constantly assume they know everything about you because they watched a fucking reality show, which is just absurd.
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‘It’s a fucking reality show. If you look at it and think everything in there is real, you’re a jerk.
‘And so you build this personality around a fucking lie and you build this personality that is so far from your personality.
‘Like, I’ve never walked into one of my stores and yelled at workers in my life. However, that’s the personality I have on TV because that’s what TV is.
Asked if it bothers him that the public perceives him as someone he’s not, Ami said, “I’ve always said, ‘I’m surrounded by 80 per cent of the fucking idiot population.’ Good? So take it with a grain of sand. You know, like, it is what it is.