Gill Montie

Gill 'The Drill' Montie (born December 18, 1954, in Traverse City, Michigan) is an American tattoo artist and one of the figures credited with bringing tattoo culture into mainstream Hollywood during the 1990s. Raised amid frequent moves between Detroit, Chicago, and Southern California, he was drawn to tattooing as a teenager, began poking tattoos by hand in 1969, and after serving in the Marine Corps from 1971 to 1973 entered a formal apprenticeship in Southern California in 1974 under an artist known as Doc Dog, which he considered the start of his professional career. He worked for years on the outlaw and convention circuit, including a period tattooing in Daytona Beach, before relocating to Los Angeles in 1989 to open Tattoo Mania on the Sunset Strip, the shop that made his name. From that base he became a bridge between tattooing and the entertainment industry, creating the full arm sleeve worn by George Clooney in From Dusk Till Dawn, co-founding the Ink Slinger's Ball, and organizing tattoo conventions at the Hollywood Palladium, while becoming known for his iconic skull designs. A cancer survivor now based in Florida, where he continues to tattoo at his Tattoo Mania studio, he is widely regarded as a living legend and mentor within the American tattoo community, and is the subject of a feature length documentary in production on his career.