Monte Roach owns and operates Roach Custom Pinstriping out of Cambridge, MN and we got to kick it down with him a little today at the Frankensteiners Ball, which was a killer show, but more on that later.

Monte had his booth setup with some of his wares, but the coolest part is that he’ll stripe whatever you throw at him right on the spot. He was finishing up some guy’s car and I caught him at a break in the action so he’d laid down some stripes on my new iPhone. When it was all finished up he told me that I shouldn’t put it in my pocket for about 24 hours, which has essentially rendered it useless to me right now, but it’ll be the bee’s knees tomorrow.

Monte is a very talented pinstriper and I was even more impressed to find out that he’s only been doing it a few years. There are a lot of people in MN who are sporting his lines and I’d recommend him to others looking to get something done. One of my college projects was on pinstriping, specifically Kenneth “Von Dutch” Howard, and anyone who knows a thing or two about it will tell you that there are a lot of forms, techniques and nuances that can be taxonomized under this medium. Monte is diversified and lays down cool dagger designs like the one on my phone, but also goes into scroll brushing work and some caricature painting… some of the scroll work can be barely seen on the front of the peanut gas tank.

Hit him up on FB if you want to gussy up your toys… link’s above and here.