They took my stencil primer – the one that was developed in a five-gallon bucket in the basement of my home – and they made it the top of the line in the European market within a couple of years. Killer Ink really did Electrum a solid by putting a lot of marketing and effort behind the Electrum name.
A couple of weeks went by and Chris gave me a call and said "Man, this stuff is amazing and you really need to get this in the hands of other artists."Ĭhris put me in touch with some distributors, and I eventually built a relationship with a company in the UK called Killer Ink, now one of the biggest tattoo suppliers int he world. I sent my newly developed product to my friendĬhris 51 (owner of the popular Formula 51 line, which is no longer in production) out in Oregon to find out what he thought of the product. I didn't set out to distribute my stencil primer in large quantities, but there are a few people that were key in turning Electrum into a mainstream tattoo brand. The name seemed fitting, and the legacy began. An artist in Michigan came up with the name Electrum, which is a naturally occurring metal alloy of gold and silver that appears green in color. After being told I couldn't use the name Kryptonite, I turned to the tattoo community for help. Comics – but the legacy has continued for a decade.
The name didn't last – I received a cease and desist letter from D.C. I immersed myself in the science and chemistry of stencil primers and developed what was first called Kryptonite Stencil Solution. I set out to find something that worked as strong but didn't have any adverse health affects. The deodorants that work best for stencils contain aluminum, which isn't something we want in our bloodstreams. I recalled an old school method of mixing alcohol, green soap and some melted down deodorant, and how superior that mixture was for stencils, but it wasn't good for the body. That's very stressful as an artist, and I knew I needed a better stencil application product. By the fifth or sixth hour, I'd start losing lines. I was doing a lot of longer sessions and I would take my time and wipe a lot. Street Ink Studios and is worth a visit). Let's back up a decade to 2012, when I was working in a street shop in Elkhart, Indiana, owned by my good friend Jason Gist (the shop is Here's the origin story, as told by Rod Smead himself: We've spent the past 10 days celebrating 10 years of Electrum Supply, and we couldn't let the birthday celebrations come to an end without one more look at the beginning.