Vyvyn Lazonga is a tattoo artist who began her career in Seattle in the early 1970s and was trained by Danny Danzl.
Later she was fortunate enough to meet Horiyoshi II at one of Lyle Tuttle's parties before returning in 1989 to open her studio in Seattle.
Victoria Lautman has cited her as an artist who helped "to shift tattoos away from fashionable little rainbows, flowers, and unicorns to the larger, fine-arts-related custom designs.
My shop is now located in one of the main historical buildings in the Pike Place Market, about 2 blocks from the waterfront.
Danny Danzl, who was a sailor during WWII and retired seaman with Foss Tug Boat Company.
When I first heard that someone was opening a tattoo shop in Seattle I immediately ran down there to talk with him to just feel the situation out.
I thought how beautiful it would be to create not only a work of art but to be able to carry a talisman around on your skin until you died.
After serving a 7-year apprenticeship with Danny I struck out on my own and decided to take tattooing off of skid road to a neighborhood called Capital Hill.
After a couple of years of that I moved to lower Haight Street and started developing a very good clientele base.
I made friends with some of the local tattooists there like Henry Goldfield, Ed Hardy, Bill Salmon, Lyle Tuttle, Erno and Captain Don.
My place was pretty well ruined in the earthquake so I packed up what I could and moved back to Seattle where I knew I could start over very easily.