Joe Rogan Experience #2438 - John Mellencamp
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John Mellencamp owned a tattoo parlor in the mid-1980s in Bloomington, Indiana, where tattoos were illegal, but authorities allowed it because it was him. Joe Rogan got his first tattoo in Connecticut because they were illegal in New York. Mellencamp brought a tattoo artist from LA's Sunset Strip (across from Hyatt House), but the parlor was shut down because the artist was a heroin addict who botched a tattoo while high.
Heroin was rare in the 1980s; now opiate addiction is off the charts due to the Sackler family. Joe knew one guy with a friend who did heroin. Mellencamp's first exposure was at Bull Island (college event imitating Woodstock with 200,000 people), where he saw a guy shoot up publicly and pass out. He had a friend who was a functional longshoreman heroin addict: scored and shot up in his truck every lunch, held a union job, one shot lasted all day.
Last drugs in 1973. Liked smoking, drinking whiskey, then fighting for the rush, but couldn't win fights. In college, started a fight at a downtown bar by spitting on a big guy; got beaten badly in the alley. Roommate drove him home drunk in an old Pinto; Mellencamp fell out when hitting a track, hair caught in door latch, dragged until roommate stopped. Woke up unrecognizable with road rash, beat-up face, cut hair short, quit drugs and alcohol at 21. Nothing since—not a drop.
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