Of all the tattooers in New York City, it's very possible that Gavan Daly (better known as Knarly Gav on the Internet) has the most dedicated following. Sure, he might not have spent time on any of the reality shows, but his wolves and cats can be seen (often eating a piece of fruit) all over the world.

While many would write off some of Daly's more humorous tattoos (like a pug laying on the beach, a wolf wearing a visor, or an eagle with women's legs on a skateboard) and ridiculous pieces (a tattoo done without looking or just scribbling) as novelty designs, no one can deny how fundamentally sound his work is.

Beyond the clean lines and immaculate shading, some of Daly's designs have become iconic in the tattoo world. His image of a cat eating a watermelon is more recognizable than just about any modern tattoo, and even the simplest of cherry tattoos is obvious when it's done by the Brooklyn-based tattooer.

But tattooing wasn't always what Daly wanted to do. He got into the industry at the late (on tattoo standards) age of 32 after deciding to no longer pursue music full-time and quickly learned the art form and historical traditions while apprenticing under a group of tattooers who were in South Carolina by way of Georgia.

Myspace caught up with the former autoharp player during his cross-country road trip to discuss everything from "good" tattoos to the effects of Instagram.

A lot of your tattoos have a funny, unique style. How did you decide on that style?

I started doing funny stuff with funny sayings, but all of my mentors told me I needed to learn how to draw. They all said "You've got to cut this hipster stuff," even though hipsters weren't around hardly yet. I'd do funny little sayings like a "naked twister" with a naked girl running and a twister in the background or "come on in, the water's great" with a shark in a pool. But they were really badly drawn, and I said this is my knack. They didn't believe me, so I had to do traditional tattoos for a while. Luckily, I learned that way with just doing whatever came in the door, but then I went back to the funny stuff and it really took off on Instagram. I started off on Myspace before that, though.

There are plenty of tattooers doing "hipster tattoos," but their work isn't as good as yours. How do you balance the "hipster" look with the clean traditional tattoos?

A lot of people say that the hipster guys aren't doing "good" tattoos, but where do you draw the hipster line? It's not even just the same level, but also the same amount of business these kids are getting because they have rad ideas. I think some people just like to do a shitty tattoo, and they end up having a good career off of that. I like to do a really clean tattoo of a kind of bad drawing, but I do shitty stuff too because that's what's popular in Brooklyn right now. It's up to the artist to make it look clean, I don't pretend to know what the guidelines are for what's "good," but I think some people's work is just cleaner than others. People give a lot of these hipster guys a bad name, but a lot of these guys are tattooing their ass off. Tattoos are up to interpretation anyway. It's really about what the people think, whether you're good or not. A lot of it is marketing. If you're good at working your Instagram, that'a a big part of it.

In your experiences, what are some of the differences between tattooing in New York versus tattooing elsewhere?

Nowadays, I guess there's not much difference. It used to be that New York was a little more black and heavier black while the West Coast was a little more smooth and black and gray, but it's pretty much the same as far as the people. They're all on Instagram trying to follow you and learn from you. It used to be just a little more bolder and fatter outlines in New York, but I don't know if that's a thing anymore because guys (in California) are using super bold lines and a lot of black. It's all over the place. But then if I go to Asheville, North Carolina as opposed to Charlotte, there's a lot of difference because people in Charlotte get it, whereas people in Asheville are more like "What are you doing?" 

You have a handful of designs that you seem to do constantly. How did those come about?

I think it used to be more popular in tattoo shops to just do that same eagle that you do all the time. It's a part of traditional tattooing in a sense, where people used to do the same tattoos all the time. Now, people are doing one-offs, and I respect that, but I kind of like doing the same ones. It's branding, and also it's easy for me. I can have fun while I'm doing it, and I can really get into the tattoo. I can talk while I'm doing them, and I'm not really feeling like it's not going to fuck it up too much. It used to be like "You get an eagle, and that's the one you get." Some guys are known for certain things and do a different one every time, and some guys are known for certain things and do the same one every time. I kind of got lucky with that, but I definitely planned it that way. I definitely thought it was a good idea.