Catching Up With Kieran Over Tattoos About Cronulla (27/10/26)

[00:00:01] The Royal Motor Yacht Club Port Hacking is a hidden gem of the Shire, situated on the banks of the beautiful Port Hacking. It's a great place to catch up with friends, celebrate your birthday or any special occasion, and they always show the NRL live on the big screens. The RMYC Port Hacking, proud sponsors of this podcast and big supporters of the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. Check out their website rmycph.com.au

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[00:00:55] Alright, welcome to SharkCast Party, a podcast dedicated to tattooing. My name's Sam Shinazzi, Kieran Fraser is here, and sir, would you like to introduce yourself? Hello mate, I'm Nick, Nick Matthews. How are you? Good, thanks Nick Matthews. Nick Matthews is a big Sharks fan and he's a champion tattooist.

[00:01:23] And we thought we'd come along and just have a bit of fun in the so-called off-season. Now Kieran, you've got your own mic there, which is great. How are you my friend? Good, Nick's looking after me mate, so we're getting there mate. We might get you up next huh? Yeah, maybe. This is the most flattering you've ever looked on the show, which is awesome. I'm looking pretty good from back here too, which is great, and Nick's the star. Nick, how long have you been supporting the Sharks for? Mate, since I was like five years old I think. Honestly, since I first started watching footy.

[00:01:51] So, 20... no, 1995. Long time ago now, yeah, I know, I know. Who is your all-time parent player? Oh, weirdly, weirdly I think it's Ben Pomeroy. Yep, don't ask me why. I just really liked watching him play. Something about him. So I had the pleasure of meeting Ben Pomeroy about a month ago for the first time at an old boys reunion, and he's doing great, and he doesn't know how popular he is. So I'm going to pass that on to him. We'll clip this up and pass that on to him. Now Kieran, what are you getting done right now?

[00:02:21] So this is a love heart with the wife's name in it. Got a swallow earlier, and then we're going to finish off with a reaper. A mix of emotions there for you? Basically just all parts of the personality really. Now I tried to talk you out of the reaper, and you thought it was because it was too dark, and my only reason for it was when we can see the try at Ocean Protect Stadium next year, I'm going to look down like I always do and we can see the try, and I'm going to see the reaper on your arm.

[00:02:47] Well, it's just another reminder of death, sharks, fans, bottling games, and taxes. All right. Don't blame me for that. Nick, why don't you plug yourself for starters? Because I'm sure a lot of our listeners either want a tattoo or have tattoos or get them regularly, and we want to get them in this place. So where are we? So we're at Lighthouse Tattoo in St. Peter's. I guess my Instagram is probably the best way, is nickmatthewstattoo, all one word.

[00:03:18] Yeah, I used to work over in Cronulla, but I've moved out this way. So it's not far. What is it? Half an hour drive? 20 minutes to get here. 20 minutes to get here. Yeah, not far at all. Yeah, come on down. Hello. Hi Jess. Just doing a little podcast. Do what you got to do. Do you like rugby league by any chance? No. If you did, what team would you go for? I don't even know what teams are out there. What's your favourite sea creature, what's the word for it Kieran? Mammal, what is it? Fish.

[00:03:47] What's your favourite fish? Ummm... Think scary. Think scary. I just like the standard goldfish. Okay. Perfect. Well, we're doing the Cronulla Sharks anyway. Why don't you be a Sharks fan for today? Do you know any Sharks players? You know Nico Hines? Andrew Weddinghausen? No clue. You don't know Andrew Weddinghausen? No. That's okay. That's okay. I don't know anything. Well, it's nice to meet you. Yeah, nice to meet you too. We're just hanging out with Nick. Thank you. That was amazing. That was amazing.

[00:04:18] I've never heard of Andrew Weddinghausen. Kieran, what are you making of the World Cup buddy? The Samoa versus Tonga game has me absolutely pumped. I can't wait to watch that one. And the Cook Islands getting a lead against the Kiwis the other day was pretty fun too. So, yeah, it's been actually pretty entertaining. Yeah, it's been good. It's been good. November 1, there's so much happening. We've already done an episode about it. But we're here to talk more about it. Overnight, Sam Walker, contract not happening. Who's the chap from Canberra? Hudson Young.

[00:04:48] Hudson Young, contract not happening. Britton Nicker on the market. Teague Wilton on the market. It's all happening though. What are your thoughts on the second row situation for the Sharkies? Given what's going on. Are we going for Hudson Young? I can't see it because obviously the PNG situation where it looks like he's getting some tax-free dollars. But I saw Fainu, it looks like he's staying at the Tigers as well. So Liam Martin is pretty much the only option. And I saw that we have been linked there. So maybe Liam Martin. Although there has been a bit of mail around Bostock as well.

[00:05:16] So maybe we could get him to the Shire. I feel like there's mail about anyone that's on November 1. And overnight it was like, we've got to get Sam Walker. It's like, I don't know if we need Sam Walker. Liam Martin. I reckon I'd love to get Liam Martin. I reckon he's been Penrith's best player for the last... Top two Penrith's best players for the last four or five years. So I would love him at the Sharks, personally. What's he bringing? Aggression. Incredible defence, I think. And also just like, kick chase.

[00:05:45] I love his kick chase. I think that's very important as well. Honestly, the whole package for me. I rate him a lot. So, hopefully. Kieran, you were on my case about Liam Martin in the episode we did last week. And I'm coming around. I've got to tell you, I am coming around. A bunch of our listeners have been in my inbox grilling me about it. Why don't you want him? I think I do want him now. But we were talking about wear and tear on the body. And people are sort of equating it to the Dale Finucan purchase of a few years ago as well for us, which didn't work out that great.

[00:06:15] But it's a bit different, right? I think so. And I think he's a little bit younger than those guys. Maybe he's actually going to be the same age, I think, now. About 29 or so if he was to come to the Sharks. But I just feel like we need a bit more leadership within that forward pack. And I think he'd really help Fennell Blake too. And a guy like Blake Braley could get into his ear in that kangaroos camp and get him over to the Shire. That's a good point. Although, did you see Ronnie and Moses Leota? They seem to be like best friends now. So maybe we might get him to partner up with AFB. You know, I do need another prop.

[00:06:42] So I could, if we're not getting Liam Martin, I could go with a Leota, that's for sure. One guy we talked about on the episode, Kieran, and I'm pushing for it now full on, is Jordan Samrani, former junior of ours. Still got tyres in the Shire. He's going to market. Are we going for him? I think he'd fill a hole for us. I think he covers a couple of different positions. I'd love to see him back at the Sharkies. And if we're going to lose the second row, which we might, he could fill in that spot at some point as well later on in his career? I think so. I think he's big enough.

[00:07:12] He's played a little bit there for the Eels and a bit of speed in the back row, never hurt. Now talk us through what's going, happening here, Kieran. How are you feeling? How's the pain factor? It's not too bad. I'm more so dreading what's coming up later. Yeah. These small ones you don't really get a lot of issues with, but some of the biggest stuff that we'll get into later on today is not so fun. Now we will chuck some things up on socials, some photos of what's going on. But for those who can't see us, which is everyone because of the great camera angle, you're getting one dedicated to your beautiful wife.

[00:07:42] Yep. She's pushed out two kids for us and we've been together for just over 10 years now. So I think she's earned her spot on the sleeve. So yeah, she's not really fussed about it. I told her she was like, cool. Um, but yeah, it's good to have it on there. Yeah. Well, if it's a wrong name, then I might have to move out. ECE. She definitely deserves a tattoo for putting up with you for 10 years. That's for sure. I put up with you for about three or four years and that's driven me nuts.

[00:08:10] So, um, before I met Kieran, Nick, I didn't have gray in my beard. Now I'm just like a gray boy. So this is the stress he puts me through. I was a very youthful man. Yeah. We have a lot of the same, uh, habits and hobbies. Shall we say that puts wear and tear on our body and Nick, the abridged version of how you became a tattoo artist and keep doing what you're going to do. We actually finished this tattoo. We're done with this one, which is good. So we're two down. We've got one more to go, but, um, I studied art at uni. I've always drawn since I was a little kid.

[00:08:39] And I just, I don't know. I, I wanted to do something where I could draw all day long. And my, my best mate at uni started tattooing and I've just, him and I got an apprenticeship together. And ever since then, which has been almost 16 years now, I've just been head first in tattooing and it's, I love it so much. Just honestly, just, I get to go home and draw. Um, it's a lot of work, you know, like a lot of hours outside of the, um, outside of the studio drawing every design up, but I love drawing. So it's like, how long did you spend drawing that one that you put it, putting it? Yeah.

[00:09:10] Probably honestly about four or five hours maybe. Yeah. Around that. Cause you do a little sketch and then you got to draw it again. You got to do a tonal study. Then you got to draw an outline. So you have to draw everything three or four times, which is, um, And Nick's got a really cool video on his page too of how we actually drew that. Oh yeah, we have a time lapse. Yeah. I'll send it over to you. Yeah. Have you done any NRL tattoos? Man, I've actually tattooed a Paul Gallon's portrait on a guy's thigh. I've seen that. Did you see that? Yeah. I can't remember his name. The guy that got it, he was an old fella.

[00:09:39] And, um, have you seen it in real life? No, I've just seen it. It went viral. Did it? I think Gal even posted it. Hang on, hang on. It's not the fella that we know who sits in the lower ET, is it? No, no. Okay. Big Paul Gallon portrait on one side. And then it was another Sharks player from the, I think it was a Sharks player from the 70s. I can't remember who it was. I'll try to find it. But he got, yeah, I've done that. And I did a few 2016 premieres tattoos, obviously. A bunch of those. Um, but I haven't tattooed any, I used to tattoo, I've tattooed Luke Keery before, because my brother went to school with him.

[00:10:09] Um. That's random. So I tattooed his foot back before he was, when he was playing for Souths, I think. So a long way back. Like a little Asian symbol or something? I can't remember. It was a cover up. I had a tattoo that he got over in Bali, I think. And I covered it up for him. Because yeah, he went to my school. So, I'm trying to think. Nah, I've done a lot of Sharks tattoos over the years. I love doing underwater stuff. So it worked out perfectly for me. I wonder if that's just because I go for Sharkies. Probably. Is he allowed to have a look live on air? Have a look, Kieran. I'm sure. And show it to everyone. What do you think? I can't actually see it.

[00:10:39] Look in the computer. The good thing is, it's going to be on there for the rest of my life. So I'll check it out then. It's perfect. All right. Now what do we do? I think I have to go, do I take the shirt off or roll it up sleeves? That'll make the fans happy. Should we hit pause? We'll hit pause on the recording. All right. So, Kieran, we're back on here. Tattoo number two for the day. Three. Three, sorry. What was the first one? The swallow. Oh yeah, of course.

[00:11:08] So three's pretty grim. Sorry for the pun. Do you want to run the punters through what's going on? So we're getting a grim reaper done right now. Standing on some rocks, looking over the ocean. Just waiting for somebody. That's interesting. What made you think of that? I wanted a reaper and I wanted a way to incorporate it into some of the other stuff that we're doing like with the nautical theme.

[00:11:33] So, add a few waves in, put him on a rock, kind of ties it in a little bit versus just a random skeleton. And so the overall message is life is ticking away. Well, the grim reaper's going to find everybody eventually, mate. So, I'm trying to get ahead of it. The darkness of Shark Cast never surprises anyone. Now Nick, this one looks pretty complex. Is this an above average complex one for you? What's the deal? Oh, this is right in my wheelhouse. This is what I love to do.

[00:11:59] So, when he came at me with this idea, I was like, alright, I'll start drawing. And we didn't really know where we were going to put it. So, I just started drawing a random shape and then just got, I took it overboard and I messaged him. I was like, hey man, can we make this massive? Because I really want to do it really like lots of detail. And obviously, the bigger you go, the more detail you can achieve. So, if you go too small, you kind of lose a little bit of that detail. So, and he was just like, yep, sweet. Whatever you want to do. So, that was perfect for me.

[00:12:29] It's perfect for me too, Kieran, because it's on your right arm. So, usually the footy I'm on your left. You're on my left. So, I'm not going to see it. Yes, you won't see it. I don't wear a singlet very often as well. That's true. I see enough reapers at Ocean Protect Stadium from time to time. I don't need another one. But it does look amazing. So, you're going to be happy with what Nick's doing here. Absolutely, yeah. So, Nick, you designed this. It took you, what, four or five hours? As a tattoo novice myself, it's amazing to see the process.

[00:12:55] Like, I'm so glad I came in here because, I mean, I had a fair idea of what happens. Yeah. But the actual attention to detail, the love, the passion I can see you have, it's super impressive, man. Thanks, man. I love to, I mean, you know, some tattoo artists and tattoo shops like to kind of, I don't know, they don't draw as much, which is fine, you know. But I think that the staple to tattooing is drawing and painting and stuff, which I love to do.

[00:13:22] So, when someone comes with an original or an idea where they want me to kind of take my flair on it or anything, I will spend, you know, as long as it takes just having, because I love the drawing process, honestly, at home. So, you know, I might not do it all in one sitting, like I'll sit down and maybe spend, I try to do a quick rough sketch in the first maybe half an hour of just composition wise to kind of see how big, you know, sort of get some movement in the design.

[00:13:51] And then after that, just get locked in on shading and detail and everything. So, yeah, it's good. And I was contemplating, because I need to make a new t-shirt design. And I was like, oh, this is a pretty fun drawing. I was contemplating maybe turning this into a t-shirt design if Kieran's okay with it. Let's get it going on the shark cast, mate. Yeah, true. All right, well, I might. I'll see. I've got to change it a little bit. But, yeah, I was thinking it was, I just ended up spending too much time on it, which is fun.

[00:14:18] Because now I've got a very, like, accurate reference that I can just look at. I don't have to make anything up when I'm tattooing, which is good. But you know what we could do here? Because my mind doesn't stop wandering here, Nick. What we could do is we could do, you know, Nick tattoos and then shark cast and have this on the front. So a split promo kind of thing. And I'm sure some of our listeners would love to get an item like that. So that could be a summer project, Kieran. Would you be happy with that, Kieran? Yeah, let's do it. At this point, I don't think it works for me, mate. Yeah, I can tell.

[00:14:48] Now, again, where's your pain factor at? A seven? This is probably a five at the moment. Five? Better than down there? Yeah. Once he does the shading, ask me then. Yeah, that's true. Early days on this one still. My favourite thing right now is I'm holding a microphone over what Nick is copying. He's, like, looking around the mic. I'm like, oh, sorry, man. I didn't realise that. That's part of the process. Let's talk some more sharks while we've got you both. Nick, so, all right, let's go grand final.

[00:15:18] Don't be one of those people that tells me some sad story about 2016. Like, tell me you were there. Man, you're not going to like me. I was in Norway. Norway? I was in Norway, which is terrible. It was the worst timing. I watched it, though. I watched it live. Unfortunately, I was in Norway. Sorry. And that was with your partner? Yes. Not my partner now, my old partner. Oh, you got a type. Apparently, yeah, European. So, I was in Norway. You always got a type. Yeah, I was in Norway. I'm not much help with that.

[00:15:44] It was, like, 23 hours of sunlight a day. It was insane. Yeah, it was weird. But I made sure to watch it. What time was it? Oh, it was... Approximately. It was definitely the morning over there. It was, like, early in the morning. And it took me about an hour and a half to figure out how to stream it, because it was impossible. But I finally found some weird torrent thing that I could watch it on. And, yeah, thank God I watched it. It was amazing.

[00:16:13] Did you have any colours on? Yes, I had my shark's jersey on. I brought it with me. Nice. But no one in Norway... The house I was at specifically, I was at a farm in Norway with her parents that didn't speak a word of English. And they had no idea what was going on. I was screaming and crying at the TV. It was very weird. I couldn't explain what was happening. So, yeah, I couldn't even explain to them. That's a great story. How long were you over there, like, that year for that trip? Like, how long were you in? I was there. So, it was actually really weird. It was the trip that we decided to end our relationship, which was very odd.

[00:16:43] Again, we're getting dark on Shark Us. It was, sorry. She was moving back there, and we'd been dating for about four years. And it was her last... And we were like, she wanted me to come. And I thought, okay, I'll come. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have. I felt... It was weird, though. But, yeah, I was with her on the farm for about four weeks, I think. And it was incredible. It was so cool over there. It was, like, on a fjord just down in south Norway in a place called Fister, which is in a very weird name. But that's what it's called.

[00:17:11] So, you were there for a month or so before the... Or, like, before during the grand final? Yes. So, no, no, no. So, I went about... I think we saw the semis in Sydney. And then we left, and I watched... I think I missed the final before the semi. But I kept my ear to the ground. And then when I saw they were in the grand final, I was like, all right, I need to figure out how to watch this. Right. And, yeah, it was, like, mid-summer. Not middle summer. Like, end of summer over there for them.

[00:17:40] It was amazing. I don't know if you guys have been to Europe. Have you been to Europe at all? Oh, man. Have you been to Europe? Yeah, man. Love it. Oh, yeah, you went to Germany. That's right. Yeah, it's incredible. But, yeah, I watched... I just watched the grand final there, and it was... Thank God. I wish I was there. I wish I was at the game. I thought this year maybe would, you know... About six weeks out when we pumped Manly, I was like, we're in. We're making it to the grand final. And then everything went wrong. As soon as Jesse got injured, I think, is when we just went downhill. It was grim.

[00:18:11] Yeah, people don't talk about Jesse Ramie enough with the collapse this year. Yeah. I'm super interested in what's going to happen next year and how they're going to address it, what they're going to say about what happened, because it was a pretty big collapse. The more I think about it, the more it just shouldn't have happened. What are your thoughts, Nick, on next year with all the new players that are going to be in and the guys we're losing? I'm upset. I'm very... I don't... You're a Talakai guy, aren't you? I love Talakai. Man, he's a king. He's so good, him. And I actually really think...

[00:18:40] I've loved watching Billy Burns this year and I thought... I reckon his next year is going to be massive. And I think... I reckon we... I don't know. I'm not... I used to love Nakora, but I'm kind of... I'm not off him, but I really prefer watching Billy. I'd like to see him start with T because I think T is incredible and he'll be playing probably for the Blues, I reckon, in the next two or three years. I think. I don't know. What do you guys reckon? He's pretty good. So I'm feeling good about those two and then I just think our centres,

[00:19:09] I really want to see what we do there because I know everyone keeps talking about Gabriel and I haven't personally seen much of him. I know he's playing the World Cup right now. Yeah. But I haven't been watching much of that, to be honest. So I'd like to see what we do there. So I'm getting, I would say, three out of ten nervous about the centres next year because Kale's coming off a pretty average year by his standards and I've got faith in him, so that's not a huge concern, but he's going to need a lift. Michael Gabriel's young, strong,

[00:19:40] but in the World Cup he hasn't lit it up at all. To be fair, he's playing some pretty great opposition. He had a decent debut, obviously, like a pretty eventful and good debut in that game against Melbourne. But I think the jury's still out as far as NRL goes. But I'm backing him in. But even after that, then you've got Riley Jones who played a couple of games for us and he's okay. We know he's okay. He's young, he'll get better. But I do think, potentially, I'd be looking at, as I said before, Jordan Samrani,

[00:20:10] who I think's affordable. I don't know if a Bradman best is affordable, but boy, if we could get an all-star centre, I'd be all in. Kieran, what are your thoughts on the centres? I think we're going to roll with what we've got for next year and then I would love to see us go get Bostock. I think he's got the probably highest upside of the players that are on the market. I think best would be great. I think, you know, I spoke about Luttrell in the past too. I'd be happy with that. It's just going to come down to who can you actually get and what can you actually afford because those are three different players

[00:20:39] at kind of different price points. But yeah, I think all three would be good. Is November 1 becoming a hindrance to clubs because everyone's just competing for the ball now? And teams don't actually have proper budgets and you're buying players 18 months in advance. It's so dumb. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, 18 months is wild. Yeah, I don't understand because this is all for 28, Yeah, okay. Who do we have the walking in centres this year? Is it? What's those three guys I mentioned? Okay, all right. Who do you think is going to be playing the first game if everyone was like... I think it would be Gabriel and Iro.

[00:21:09] Okay, sorry, Raleigh Jones I meant. Raleigh Jones? Yeah. I think he'll be the backup. Okay. But I mean, if he has an amazing off-season or whatever, I mean, who knows? Yeah. But there's going to be some turnover. I mean, you're going to have to fill Sione Katoa's spot, so that'll be between Stone Street and Leo Jacques. Kieran, any insight there what you think might happen? I saw Stone Street the other day walking to the house across the road from me. He was going to a grand final party, but other than that, I don't really have any thoughts on it. I think we've got to see what the rugby union fellow

[00:21:38] can do and give them a whole off-season and have a bit of a shootout. Let's see how they go. I think it's a chance, hey? I think it's a chance of starting. I've only seen him in person once and he's a big body and if he's got some pace, then there's definitely a lot to work with there. Yeah. He's Stone Street. The new Leo Jacques. Leo Jacques, new fellow, yeah, rugby guy. He's built amazingly. He's huge. He played the league up until about 19 or 20, then went to rugby around that age. And he's played for the Waratahs, played for Junior, Wallaby,

[00:22:08] so he's got all the attributes. Wait, did we talk all-time ferret players? Yeah, Pomeroy. Pomeroy. Pomeroy. Don't know why, I think. When I was probably about 18, I think, I was living at my nan's place in Maryville and we didn't have any internet or anything like that, which was great. I was just drawing a lot and we had some footy posts across the road. She lives in Petersham and I was just down there every night kicking conversions by myself, which was great, but I was also trying to get into the gym a little bit and I think Pomeroy

[00:22:37] was playing the centers and he was just manhandling people and I don't know, I was just like, I want to try and be as strong as that guy. Honestly, that's all it comes down to. And then I see, and I hadn't heard his name for a long time but he always had a spot in my heart until I heard you guys talking about him recently and I was like, yeah, someone actually remembers this dude and I think he was at the get-together recently, right, that you guys were at. Yeah, yeah, and I saw a photo with him and I was like, oh, that guy's really, I don't know,

[00:23:06] I just remember him forever. He's definitely a cult favourite, like a lot of people remember him but I don't hear a lot of people saying he's my favourite player with sincerity. Yeah, I've heard a lot of stuff online about him dropping the ball all the time. Was he really that Yes, he was. My memory was, absolutely. I remember him picking people up and throwing him to the floor. I was like, yes. The thing is, when he was at his best, he was like an 8 out of 10 centre, like he was really good, he won games for us but yeah, he was a little bit dropsy particularly later on

[00:23:36] in his career. He always had a bit of an injury too but when I spoke to him, he was so humble, he was so surprised, I wanted to talk to him, he's like, what's going on here? I'm like, it's a shark podcast. You're a shark legend. He's like, what? And he had a great time and I said, you're going to go down to Ocean Protect Stadium after this and you're going to get selfies and autographs and he's like, nah, no one will know who I am. I said, you haven't even aged 1%. Yeah, that photo blew my mind. The photo when I saw him, I was like, man, he looks like he played

[00:24:06] last week. It's nuts. He's a good fellow, that's for sure, a good fellow off the field and part of some very interesting years, some of our lowest years and a couple of our better years so now you're looking forward to the Leeds Club opening, Nick? Yeah, definitely. When is that? Is that? It's like Saturday week. Oh, wow. Okay, what are they doing for it? Well, I know that, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, Kieran, but I know this week there's a bit of a former players tour of the establishment, a bit of a get-together so they're definitely

[00:24:35] opening it up for selected people just to have a bit of a look and on the day, I imagine there might be a bit of a ribbon cutting, it might be Andrew Eddinghausen, it could be Ben Pomeroy, I'm not sure, but business is open on Saturday so I'll be advertising for the Super Bowl which I think the Vikings are going to be there, Kieran. The 17-0 Vikings. Philly's no good this year so my interest is gone. Now, you play music. Yes. Do you want to spruik some of your bands? of course. Well,

[00:25:05] the band that I'm playing the most with at the moment is a band called Ugly Mug. We play sort of punky, garage-y kind of stuff. We're playing a show next week, actually, yeah, next week, next Sunday at the Lord Gladstone, it's a bit of a festival there but we've got an album that we're about to release, we're just finishing the mixing on it now, yeah, so we've got a couple of BPs out but we've been, we recorded our album a few months ago and two of the dudes in my band of the three of us

[00:25:34] do sort of sound engineering and things like that so they've been, we've been slowly mixing it ourselves which I'm finding out is actually potentially not the best idea because if you're too close, I'm not sure if you've ever done this but if you're too close to the finished product you never get it done, you're always like we can change this, we'll change this and it's just taking forever so we're putting some hard deadlines on and we'll get it mastered hopefully pretty soon so yeah, that'll be coming out I think, I'd say January I reckon, hopefully, yeah, yeah. Are you so punk rock

[00:26:04] that it's not online or is it online? No, it's online. It's on Spotify, definitely, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So yeah, Ugly Mug is the band name and the other band is a bit more Sabbath-y 70s rock riffs it's, yeah, that one's called Iron Blanket so I don't think we have any gigs coming up at the moment but again, we've also just recorded another, our second album and that's that's mixed but we're just, I don't know, it's not really going anywhere at the moment so we'll see what happens with that one.

[00:26:34] I mean, you're living a pretty busy life here. I know, that's the thing, we just, I just got married last week so I, a lot of my attention's been focused on that so now that's over I can start getting back to doing a few of those extracurricular things. Kieran, I can't wait for our listeners to write in about this angle that we got here, man. You look like you're dead or something. I feel alright at the moment, but it's just, you know what's coming that's the thing. But this is a pretty good spot. I've got to say, like Nick knows what he's doing, like he seems very

[00:27:04] professional, very serious, very, are you an award-winning tattooist? I haven't won any awards yet, no, but I, I might go in one this week, so next weekend we've got a tattoo expo at, where is it, the Horton I think, it's called Iron Gate next Saturday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and you can enter in tattoos obviously, and I've got a few bigger sleeves and things that I might enter into, you know, they have categories like best colour,

[00:27:33] best black and grey, best large, blah, blah, blah, so I might have a crack with a best large colour and try and see if I can get an award, but at the end of the day I'm not too fussed about that sort of stuff, it'll be nice, but yeah, it's not what I'd do it for, I don't think. I was saying to Kieran that I think part of, now I'm here experiencing this, part of the charm is the person inking you up, right, so if you trust the person then you're pretty relaxed, you're pretty comfortable, you're pretty safe, I like that word safe,

[00:28:03] and so again, we want our people, if you're into tattoos, you may not be into it, come and see Nick, now how do we get in touch with you again? I would say go to my Instagram, it's the easiest, which is nickmatthews tattoo, and on there there's a little contact button, click that and it'll send you to my email address, you can send me an email or you can just flick me a DM, honestly, it's easy that way, you don't have to have an exact idea of what you want either, like generally just

[00:28:33] opening up, if you have a thought about something, just opening up the conversation, we do, like I do, free consults, you know, you can come in, we can sit down and have a chat, 20 minutes, whatever, and if you have any reference images, bring them in, we can have a talk, I'll draw something, like I said, I enjoy drawing custom stuff, so if you have a rough idea, I can take it from there, but if you have something that you know exactly what you want, then that's also fine, but generally I

[00:29:02] won't just steal someone else's design and tattoo that because, you know, each, I think each design is drawn up specific for each person, so yeah, come on in, come on in, just send me a message if you've got an idea and I'll take it from there. So if someone has like a particular image they want, you could just put a twist on it? Yeah, definitely, yeah, yeah, unless, you know, if it's something like a, say if it's a, like we were talking about a portrait or something earlier, I'm not going to redraw that because I want that to be exactly as it is or if it's, you know,

[00:29:32] say it's an animal or something that you really love like some photograph, it's like, there's no point in me trying to redesign something like that, so, but even with borders and things like around an animal for example, you don't just want it to just finish, so we'll draw something that kind of flows with the body, that's really important I think that it works where it's meant to be, it's drawn for the spot that it's meant to be, which is funny because this reaper, we didn't know where it was So if one was to get a

[00:30:02] dearly departed cat, you're saying it should be not just floating, it should be somewhere? Well, I would, it depends on how you want it, but you don't just want a little head of a cat just in the middle of your arm, just floating around, like potentially you would chuck, potentially a little banner or something with like a date or, you know, a border in that sense, or you could even just have sort of a little bit of colour kind of coming off the edge just to fill the space, it's not like a painting or a drawing, you want it to sit somewhere and also when you're tattooing

[00:30:31] it's like, you kind of got to imagine that the person's going to get more tattoos all the time, even if they're only coming for one, I can't tell you how many times they've come in for one and then we've done one and they'll message me two weeks later and be like, alright, I've got 15 more ideas, which is great. This is you down to a T. So, you've just got to imagine, you've got to think about the whole body and how it's all going to work and also, if it's the only one they ever get, you want it to just sit well and be framed nicely, I think,

[00:31:01] and that's important. So, youngest person you've ever done is 18 years, obviously that's what we're going to say, who's the oldest approximately? I've tattooed, I came in once at my old shop and it was back when they would just kind of book you in stuff, someone would be emailing and be like, I want to get tattooed on Tuesday and then my manager would just say, yep, no worries, I'll book you with Nick on Tuesday and anyway, I looked at my calendar and it just said, okay, that'll be nice, I assumed a 20 something year old and

[00:31:31] 40 or 60 whatever, but in they came and the daughter was 65 and the mum was 86 or something, first tattoo on her foot and I hadn't been tattooing that long at that point, it was a long time ago now and I was like, okay, she was lovely, she was really nice, we got along great but then I was drawing up the stencil and one of the girls I was working with was like, hey, be really careful when you tattoo her, you can rip her skin open and I was like,

[00:32:01] yep, sure, no worries and she's like, no, literally like this, her skin is like paper so don't stretch it too much so I was pretty worried and she sat amazing, tattooed her foot which is a horrible spot, she got a butterfly in her foot, it's great, she sat like a legend, I know she was in her 80s but I can't remember the exact age but that was a first and it was great. The reason I say that is because we have a, as you know as a listener Nick, audience from age below 18 and then all the way up to, yeah, like the

[00:32:31] elderly so a lot in between as well so we're just turning this into a Nick Sprook which is going to be awesome. Have you done any Springsteen tattoos in your life? I haven't done any Sprook. First for everything. Springsteen, let's go. You want a Springsteen tattoo? Well he's my hero in life, him and Valentine and it could be an option Nick. Valentine Springsteen. We could do that. Sounds like a future recording project for you and I. Kieran, what's the plan after this?

[00:33:01] Well, I've still got some gaps that I've got to fill so I'm going to give it a break over summer and then I'll fill that in and then probably in March I'll finish off the rest of the arm and then onto the chest and then we'll see from there. Okay, awesome. I've got too much time on my hands which I don't have any time but this actually gives me time to myself to sit down and not do anything which is good. I'm surprised you booked out a whole day Kieran. I haven't, I'm just not checking my phone. Yeah,

[00:33:31] right. Alright, so Kieran, how are you feeling about Sharks November 1? It's a big thing for you. I feel like we're going to spend some cash. I feel like it's... Fitzy's playing the quiet ball? Yeah, well this is the thing, I've seen people complaining online saying the Sharks don't sign anyone but they're going to have to buy somebody because there's a lot of people going out the door and there's a lot of cash sitting there so let's see what they do. My favourite thing is when someone's available we should buy that guy. Sam Walker's available, we should buy that guy. This guy's available, we should buy that guy. Well, can't buy everyone. We don't need to buy Sam Walker's

[00:34:01] not realistic so forget that one. We don't need another half. Yeah, exactly. We don't need another half anyway so not him. Alright, well I might let you boys continue your work here. I've got to say, Nick, your neighbours in here are very friendly and quiet. It's very quiet. Everyone somehow just went quiet which I really respect. They're definitely going to give me shit. I'm going to cop it later for sure but that's alright. It's fine. You think you're better than us. You've got a podcast. Definitely. 100%. I already saw you're in.

[00:34:31] I'm seeing one right now. Yeah, exactly. I can see them all. It's okay. Alright, well we appreciate you giving us your time my friend and great to meet you. I'm sure we'll see you again soon. Whether I'm lying down or standing up, I'm not sure. We'll work that one out. We'll see you down at Ocean Protect Stadium. Kieran, we'll see you and I can't wait to hear how you've recovered. Maybe we should do one. We'll do an episode as soon as we can. many different

[00:35:01] ways on this show and this is one of the best ones I've got to say. A bit of radiohead in the background as we go out. Yeah, let's go. Alright, this has been Shark Cast Pod. Very different episode for us. I'm speaking very quietly now because it's gone very quiet with Tom York over the top. We'll talk to you

[00:35:32] in the region. The person you need to be talking to is Jason Hawes from Crips and Crips Real Estate. Call him on 0410 417 450 That's 0410 417 450 Jason Hawes Crips and Crips Real Estate. Shark is in

[00:36:07] the shire tell you I