Chat and Tat: Ben Verhoek

“Everything just seemed right and genuine about it: it was basically a place to mourn and start something new”

By Joe Horton

I met Ben when I got my free Ballers tattoo last year at his shop, Pastime Tattoo. I’ve come to know him as one of the great good guys in Bay baseball and creative scenes and as a driving force behind so much of the richness in B’s life, including his artistic alchemy of team highlights, podcasts, social media, and graphics. When you see a Ballers homer scrolling on your phone or replayed on the big board at Raimondi, that’s probably him. He’s a regular in the pressbox and on broadcasts. We have B’s Cast because of Ben.

I sat down with him for a chat as I got another tattoo. We talk strangest places for tattoos, team alter egos, the man Dallas Braden and the villain Dave Kaval, the long terms goals of the B’s, and a preview of Tattoo Tuesdays for next season. Oh, and I hear what Ben’s walk-up song would be.

How did you get into tattooing?

I was the kid who was into art and would draw a lot, and my parents would always buy me little art kits with paints and markers and all this stuff, and I would draw whatever cartoons I would watch. Then, as I grew up, I'd start drawing wrestlers or comic books, and I got into my teenage years and I kind of shifted to playing music. I played drums a lot. Then I get into my 20s, and I'm going on tour with some punk rock and hardcore bands that I was in, and a lot of the houses we'd stay at on the road were tattooers' houses. And at the time, when I was touring, I was working at Safeway, very miserable, didn't have any direction where I was gonna go long term. And between playing the music, meeting a bunch of tattooers, staying at tattooers' houses, there was some point where it clicks: okay, this is my calling. This is what I need to do. So, one time I came home from tour and bought a tattoo kit and started fucking up a bunch of my friends. I realized pretty quickly that I needed to get an apprenticeship because I didn’t know what I was doing. And a few years later, I got an apprenticeship.

Ben points across the room. His mentor Sal happens to be in the shop today with a new apprentice. Sal “Chamuco” Cortez owns Amor Eterno Arte in East Oakland where he taught Ben to tattoo. (The shop used to be Bruce Lee’s party house back in the day.  There’s an old photo of him in front of the window where Ben’s tattoo station was.  And before that, the shop was a speakeasy during prohibition.)

What was your first official tattoo?

It was the initials of my friend's mom's boyfriend, who was a gang member who was locked away in prison somewhere in Central California.

This strikes me as the perfect first tattoo. Or, at least, the one you will never forget. What do you like most about tattooing?

I get to do what I love for a living and just be creative. It grants me a lot of freedom. For instance, I used to go watch Spring Training in Arizona all the time, and after a few times I'm like, “I'm spending all this money on this whole vacation, I bet I could just find a shop in Old Town Scottsdale and guest spot and make the money back that I'm spending out here.”

Anywhere I go in the world, I can find a tattoo shop, make a few hundred bucks and listen to whatever music I want in there, dress without a uniform, and no one's telling me to shave a certain way. So it's just a nice change from the corporate world of working at Safeway and shit like that.

How many tattoos do you have?

Oh, I don't know.  It's hard when you get a bunch, because you get a few of them on your arm, say, and then they kind of eventually come together, so then the count goes down, because then four turns into one, you know what I mean? So, something in the hundreds, I would imagine.

On the opposite side of things, for somebody who's getting a tattoo for the first time, what should they know?

Do your homework on who's gonna do your tattoo. Make sure it's in a reputable shop. Look at their portfolio, make sure they have solid lines, good saturation, smooth shading, good lines without wiggles and blowouts. 
And don't always go for the cheapest price, because you get what you pay for, and usually, it aligns with experience. And then good reviews, for sure, because someone could be the most immaculate tattoo artist and still be a prick, you know what I mean? When you're doing something like tattooing, it could be a very intimate experience, and comfort is important. And then as far as preparing your body for it, getting a good night's sleep the night before; it makes a huge difference as to how well you can sit. Making sure you ate recently is very, very important. Because when the tattoo first starts, your body goes through an adrenaline rush, and that's fueled by your blood sugar, and if you don't have enough, you’ll pass out. So stay hydrated, don't go out and get drunk the night before. Take care of your body, and it'll take care of you.

You are an “American traditional” tattoo artist. What does that mean?

That means I specialize in the style of tattooing that was made famous by the old-school tattooers who would mostly tattoo sailors and bikers and degenerates. And what makes a tattoo traditional style is a few factors. 
Bold lines, saturated colors with a minimal color palette, then iconic imagery like ships, anchors, eagles, and skulls and daggers. Of course I do a lot more than that.

You're looking at your day. What are the kind of tattoos or projects that excite you coming in, and which ones are you like, these pay the bills?

I don’t really think there are tattoos that I'm not as stoked to do. I mean, there are a lot of tattooers out there that get whiny and complainy when they have to do, like, little Pinterest-style tattoos. They're quick and they pay the bills. I don't really mind. What they're missing is, even though the tattoo might not be challenging you or be some elaborate back piece that's gonna get you a bunch of likes on Instagram or notoriety, that interaction with the person getting that tattoo could be super cool, super memorable: we just happen to find out we like the same band, or we went to the same school or all this shit. And that alone is unexpected and is an added bonus and kind of makes whatever the tattoo is irrelevant too.

Strangest place you've ever done a tattoo for somebody, or most memorable?

I mean, I've done some butt cheek tattoos. I've seen some…other odd places get tattooed.

That's the next question.

Well, I don't even know if this is printable, but my friend who was the type of guy who was…If you were like, “Oh, you won't do this,” he'll be like, “Yeah? Watch me.” So, I guess someone was like, “You won't get the logo of our shop tattooed on your scrotum, and sure enough, without even saying anything, he pulled it out and put it on the armrest, and one of our guys did it. And it's not his first one there, either. He has his wife's name on there, too.

You’ve done so many tattoos for so many people. What makes one stand out?

I always enjoyed tattooing Dallas Braden. Because he's just a wealth of baseball knowledge. What you see on TV is what you get in your life. He's the nicest dude. I could ask him whatever. He's completely honest with me about stuff.

Speaking of and switching to baseball, how did you get involved with the Ballers?

I was a major Oakland A’s fan, and as soon as they announced they were leaving, I completely instantly pulled the plug on my fandom. I vowed to never go to another game, not even the last one. I went to the protest, but I didn't go inside. Just didn't want to give them any money that they would put towards Vegas.

And then I saw the announcement of the Ballers, and everything just seemed right and genuine about it: it was basically a place to mourn and start something new. So that inspired me. After watching the first season, during that offseason, I hit them up, and I was like, “Hey, I got some ideas that can help you guys out.” Namely, a podcast. I filmed the whole pilot episode of a podcast at home, myself, with a green screen, and pitched it to them, and had a meeting with all them, and they loved it, and that's how these B’s Casts came to be. And then that snowballed into me working in the press box, doing highlight reel stuff, and then me doing graphic design and signage for some parts of the ballpark or little funny videos for the scoreboard. It all started from just giving it a shot, you know?

What's been your experience in terms of the team’s goals for the future?

Even beyond just them as the Ballers, I'm saying minor league baseball in general, they don't have the star power to get butts and seats like major league baseball does. So it's a necessity for them to survive to do things to attract the community and show that you actually care about the community. And people can tell it when it's fake, you know what I mean? Everything seems genuine with them, and the Ballers do that tenfold.  That really attracted me to them. And then working with them, I got to peel back the curtain a little more, and I'm still yet to find anyone that works there that’s a jerk. Everyone there is so nice, and it quickly felt like a family environment, and everybody loves everybody.

What are your hopes for next season?

Another ring, baby!

But beyond the performance of the team, I’d really love to see the Ballers continue to expand. They're reaching out to other parts of the Bay Area—because they've done a really good job in Oakland, you know—San Leandro, places like that. And I'm starting to see it…I see people at my gym wearing Ballers hats now, and that wasn’t the case a year ago. When I talk about the Ballers, I don't have to explain what that is. People are like, “Oh, yeah, I know the Ballers!” It's well on its way.

We met during the free B’s tattoo event last year. Why did you decide to do that? It’s a merging of your interests, of course.

When I was still a fan of the A's, I always wanted to get involved with the baseball team in one way or another. I actually had a meeting with Dave Kaval before he turned out to be a villain, and I pitched the idea of tattooing during the A’s game, in the Treehouse. And he was all about it, and he was like, “All right, I'm gonna get the promotions team in contact with you so we can schedule dates and all this stuff.” And then Covid happened, and then I never heard from him again.

But then the Ballers came to be, and I felt like it was a lot more accessible. Not so much trying to do the tattoo thing, but just to be a part of baseball. Because second to my art stuff, baseball was always a part of my life. I was really fascinated by the behind-the-scenes parts. The stories or the production behind the ball game and what you see on TV. 
So, I felt like this was a chance for me to be involved.

That storytelling part of it, obviously, is interesting to me too, and one of the things I like about baseball is that it's like a long story, right? A friend of mine describes it as a soap opera. It's not that it's overly dramatic, necessarily, but it just goes and goes and goes, and you’re a part of it day in and day out. That's definitely my hope for the Ballers, that they go forever. Do you think that's a possibility for them, seeing it through your view that not a lot of people get? 
Do you think they are set up for the long term?

Yeah. I think so.  They have the right people behind them, and I think having a fanbase built in advance that no other team that starts out gets to have, that absolutely helps a lot. But the fact that a lot of people just like me are working for them not because they need the money or because it’s a job close to where they live, it's because they're very passionate about the team, about the reason the team is here, and they just want to be a part of that. When you have that kind of motivational force behind stuff that you're doing, nothing but good things happen. And the momentum it's been having, the hiring of Yeshayah, the president, it seems like it's just full steam ahead with all the stuff that needs to happen to make this go forever.

If you could propose an alternate identity, an alter ego for the Ballers to have on Sundays or once a month, what would it be?

Oh, man. I'm just gonna copy T-Lo. His idea…I'll retell the story. He said, “When Reed Butz was pitching, people in the crowd were saying, ‘We Love Butz, We Love Butz.’ So one of the umpires was like, ‘Are they saying we love blunts? Because we're in Oakland?’” So after that game, T-Lo and the guys went to wherever they were staying, and we were talking about what if we had an alternate identity called the Oakland Blazers, sponsored by a local dispensary, and then they can chant, “We Love Blunts, We Love Blunts,” you know?” So that's a good one. That would be cool. You know, Oakland and cannabis have a very storied history, especially when it comes to groundbreaking legalization and decriminalization, and both tell a lot of stories about Oakland. But I could also understand how it's a little controversial, too. So...

Tell me a little bit about Tattoo Tuesdays.

Next year we’re doing a new promotion where we’ll be giving out tattoo flash sheets with Ballers designs on them at every Tuesday home game. When our annual free tattoo event comes around toward the end of the season, fans can choose from any of the tattoos on any of the sheets. This way they’ll get to think about what they want and have a lot more to choose from when they’re ready.

If you were a player, what would be your walk-up song?

I’ve thought of this before. It's a metal band called Decapitated, and a song called Spheres of Madness. And the double bass is just the constant, and then the guitar goes, dang, dang, dang, dang, dang. And it's just chaos, and it would intimidate the opposing team.

And we’re done with the tattoo.

Great, looks awesome. Yeah. Very good. Love it.

Find Pastime Tattoo at 1394 E 14th St in San Leandro and on Instagram

Joe Horton is the editor of Dispatches from Raimondi.