One of the biggest influences of tattooing’s journey from underground trade into mainstream art form has been celebrities showing off their ink. Once reserved for outlaws and rebels against society, tattoos on public figures have made the type of body modification more popular and socially acceptable than ever before. 

From pop stars and actors to athletes and models, famous people are getting more and more tattooed. So who’s the one tattooing them? Well, for a lot of Hollywood’s finest, it’s 23-year-old Romeo Lacoste. The Florida native moved to LA at the age of 20 to pursue his tattooing dream, and in the three years since he’s not only become a tattooer of the stars (at his own shop, The California Dream), but also a model, YouTube star (he’s got his own channel showing time-lapse tattoos, celebrity guests, and much more) and social media maven.

In the time between his tattoo sessions with musicians like Our Last Night, Justin Bieber, and Soulja Boy, Myspace caught up with the young ink slinger to talk celebrities, tattooing misconceptions, and his time spent on a reality show.

Who are some of the most famous celebrities you’ve tattooed, and what’s it like to have your work seen on stars so often?

I’ve tattooed a wide variety of celebrities. Anyone from the biggest pop stars like Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande to the biggest Internet celebrities like Tyler Oakley and anywhere in between, like Pentatonix, Soulja Boy, YG, and Janel Parish of Pretty Little Liars. I love it. I’m glad they trust me with their work. They’re all different types of people, but I like tattooing everyone the same.

Do you ever get to hang out with any of the celebrities you tattoo, or is your relationship with them strictly professional?

It really depends. Some of them I’ve only tattooed once, and some of them I’ve tattooed a bunch of times. Justin Bieber—I would say we know each other but it’s not someone I hang out with often. I’ve tattooed him a couple times and sometimes I’ll get invited to his parties or events. Ariana, on the other hand, I could say we’re actually friends. We text often and see each other often, so it really just depends. I think when you become someone’s tattoo artist, even as a celebrity you get on a personal level with them and they want to keep that connection since tattooing is such an intimate experience. 

Is there one celebrity tattooing moment that stands out from the rest? One where you just thought, “I can’t believe I’m doing this”? 

Yeah, I remember this YouTube group I tattoo, the Janoskians, hit me up to be in their video. They wanted to get the bottom of their foot tattooed as some sort of challenge to see who could take the most pain, and I was literally like “WTF?” the whole time. It was a weird thing for sure.

For someone who only knows you from your social media presence or through celebrities, what do you think people don’t realize about the art of tattooing? 

People don’t realize that tattooing is a serious procedure. I think people think of it as this cool, hip thing that anyone who can draw can do. People don’t realize that it’s a whole new art form. It’s learning to draw all over again. It doesn’t matter how good your buddy is at drawing, he can’t just pick up tattoo equipment and be a DaVinci the next day. You have to learn all over again from the beginning, and it takes years of devotion and practice to be a good tattoo artist. Be careful and choose who tattoos you wisely. 

What was your experience on (tattooing reality show) Best Ink 3 like? 

Best Ink 3 was a very interesting experience. I’m a little disappointed to be honest. I gave it my best, but I don’t feel like the judging was done very fairly. I think it was biased—of course anyone would say that—but I would be honest if I felt I made a mistake and shouldn’t have won. I lasted eight episodes, so that’s pretty good. It was a good experience, but of course winning is always better. 

Outside of tattooing, what other kinds of art do you like to do? 

I’m very into Copic markers. I really like illustrative, comic, and anime artwork, so I’m really inspired to do that style of work as much as I can when I’m tattooing, or outside of tattooing. For that reason, I feel pretty comfortable with markers. I use high quality markers that give the effect of watercolor, but I feel have a little better precision.