I grew up probably at the height of the popularity of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. During my elementary school days, my head was filled with the crime-fighting, pizza-loving antics of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Rafael and their fight against the evil Shredder. I still sometimes find myself in debates about what your favorite turtle says about your personality. The TMNT also loom large here in the Valley, where they were conceived by creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Every day on my way to work I pass the recently painted mural on Center Street in Northampton featuring the four heroes.
Likewise, the Ninja Turtles had a significant effect on the life of Easthampton resident Eric Talbot, an illustrator who worked on the franchise for decades, starting in 1987. “Turtles paid for my house,” he told writer Chris Goudreau in this week’s cover story. “Turtles made my life.” But as good a ride as it was, that chapter in his life did eventually come to an end after the rights to the Turtles were sold to Viacom in 2009. Now, he’s back to illustrating, but rather than on paper, his medium is the human body — specifically creating tattoos.
It’s a rarity for someone to enter the tattooing field later in life, and some tattoo artists interviewed in Goudreau’s story said they would have been unlikely to take on an apprentice of Talbot’s age had it not been for the esteem he had achieved through his work on the Turtles. For Talbot’s part, tattooing was something he became interested in at an early age, getting his first ink at the age of 19. Now a tattoo artist with Oxbow Tattoo, he is described as having a steady hand from years using traditional illustrating tools like brush and ink and dip pens, rather than the digital tools many illustrators rely on today.
It is inspiring to read about Talbot’s transition and the challenges he has set for himself. And he’ll probably keep busy just from serving the many fans who grew up obsessed with a certain reptilian foursome transformed by radioactive ooze into crime-fighting ninjas.
— Dave Eisenstadter