The Tattoo Shop in Medford, Long Island New York

I will start by telling you that his father is the late J.C.Fly. Greg thanks him for giving him this gift that he shares everyday with his family, closest friends and total strangers who just want to say "they wear the mark of GREG FLY". Greg Fly's beginnings into the art of tattooing started just four store fronts away in the side alley with his father & beloved tattoo icon JC Fly, at the age of 6yrs. old. Greg's coloring books at this young age were line drawings of the Sailor Jerry, Ed Hardy, Bob Roberts & Jack Rudy flash that hung on the walls of his dad's tattoo shop. His dad made him trace the designs and then color them to keep him occupied while JC tattooed & met with some of New York & the nations noted tattoo figures.

At the age of six (6), Greg tattooed a man by the name Neil, whom his father was teaching at that time. With careful determination he was able to make is first mark. By twelve years (12) old Greg started to tattoo more regularly, friends of his fathers. They had tattoo work from abroad that needed to be touched up, but instead Greg would imagine the image the way he saw it and bring it back from the dead with his twist on it. During this time, Greg frequented tattoo conventions and hob knobbed with some of the greatest and most influential tattoo artists of our time....Ed Hardy, Jack Rudy, Bob Roberts, Master Horiyoshi III, Bob Shaw, Gill Monte ,Fip Buchanan, Paul Rogers, Lyle Tuttle, Don Nolan, Sailor Moses and Spider Webb. Just to name a few. At sixteen Greg was attending high school during the day and started tattooing everyday alongside his dad in Medford on Rt. 112. While in high school Greg became somewhat of an urban legend because of his talents. Greg was so well known for his talent that he was pulled out of class one day to be asked by the principal himself, if he would recreate the school marquee & year book cover, which he did in gold leaf and with all the flair and style, we have all come expect.

Graduating from Sachem High School in 1993, he soared like an eagle and opened Slingin' Ink on Rt. 112 in Patchogue, NY. From there, he went to work with a good friend, Danny, at SMOKIN' GUN in Ronkonkoma where he tattooed for 7 years pumping out tattoos that were just mind blowing. Being right next to the train station, he was able to come in contact with people who ranged from New York City Police Officers, who would get off the train and come straight to get tattooed, to people who barely had enough money to by themselves a soda. However, they at one time or another came back to be marked by Greg Fly.

During this time, in mid March 2001, Greg had more adversity to hurdle over. After a long battle with his kidney's failing, JC Fly was laid to rest. JC Fly's funeral brought tattoo artists and enthusiasts from all over the country to pay their final respects. It was a daunting task for Greg to re-live, over & over, everybody's memories of his father and to see the marks JC had left on all his friends & acquaintances. Although painful, it turned out to be bitter sweet. Greg started to draw and revisit the old school styles of work he was made to trace as a kid, while he spent the summers and after school with his dad at the tattoo shop. The pencil flourished with fond memories and images of years gone by.

After getting married, and the birth of his beautiful children, Greg tried his hand at some other means of making a living, however he was a slave to the needle & pencil. He consistently drew and tattooed by special request from friends & family. With undying devotion to her husband, Jen, Greg's wife encouraged Greg to re-enter the industry full time in his own shop. With that Greg & his partner, Steve, opened "The Tattoo Shop, Inc."

With a huge poster of J.C. Fly on the wall and just above it a plaque with the words "RESPECT", which is what JC Fly always commanded in his own inadvertent way, Greg & Steve opened an old school based studio reflecting the great works of Don Ed Hardy, Sailor Jerry, J.C. Fly, Bob Roberts, etc.