It says summer 2001 on the cover because we were planning to get Machinegun out quarterly, or at least twice a year – summer and winter.

Only someone who has actually put out their own small magazine can really understand how difficult it is to accomplish. We had hoped that Machinegun wouldn’t just be ignored – we really wanted some reaction from the trade, and we got it.

The coloring contest got a handful of entries. Even if only Biff Cooper had sent one in (and he did) I’d have been happy. I’m pretty sure this was the only coloring contest ever directed at tattoo artists and they probably weren’t sure what to make of it.

Tattoo artists who thought the autoclave cookbook was funny really thought it was. Others actually thought we were encouraging tattoo artists to cook hot dogs in their autoclave. At least they were thinking about their autoclaves, and the question was now answered… it takes 4 minutes at 260° F.

The secrets of catfish noodlin’ were not revealed.

Issue one was almost perfect. An instant classic that will be as relevant fifty years from now as it was the day we put it out.

Best Line in Issue 1

Bill Baker and Seth Ciferri discussing the possibility of a big company making machines in volume (Seth Ciferri interview, p. 13).

Bill: What if somebody came to you, and said – “Seth, don’t be stupid – you could make a lot of money. All you have to do is give me the rights to this, I’ll set up the little factory – we’ll knock out thousands of these things – we’ll run full page ads – we’ll be rich!”

Seth: Fuck that. I’d never do that.