 I suppose that my interest in art began with my earliest experiences. As I remember it, I can only think back to when I was a young child laying in bed while my grandma read stories to me. You know the story books I speak of…it seemed that every page had bright, colorful pictures that could be pointed out as the story progressed. The beginnings of my imagination grew with the solid foundation in relating images with action, emotion and wonder as my grandmother would turn the pictures towards me so that I could see the story that she was telling. I would clutch at the book and scan every drop of ink… looking at lines, examining the seeming movement of the images, amazed that there could be something that is crafted that would tell a story at a glance. The work of the artist had captivated my thoughts and I could not ignore it. I am quite relieved that she did not find it convenient to park me in front of a television as a substitute for my early years of education.
I am fortunate.
Being a tattoo artist is an honor beyond words. email gary at: gary@pikespeaktattoo.com |
As it turns out, I soon began to trace the images that I would find in my childhood books. I remember that throughout the years, my most worthwhile and favorite pastimes always included a stylus and some kind of medium on which I could let loose my imagination and create images. The fact that I could view the world and recreate it through my mind…letting it flow through my arm and out of my fingertips back into the world as art has always been something that I would enjoy doing. It is only natural that my interest would be drawn to the living art of the tattoo. My first encounter with a living, breathing canvas thrilled me to no end. I examined the panther that adorned my father's forearm. I knew that I should have been more excited to actually meet my father at that time since I hardly knew him…but instead I was captivated more with his warrior's mark that he got as a soldier fighting in some far away war. He was living art and his marked skin was beyond the pages of story books and the simple pictures that emerged from my crayons and pencils. He was mythical. He was marked. He was TATTOOED!
From that point on, it has been nothing more than me being me. I have always crafted images for my pleasure or the pleasure of another. I have been on the receiving end of the tattoo machine since an early age thanks to an incredible family and now I find myself transforming people with story-telling pictures by tattooing them. My fascination with images has come full circle and I find my horizons similar to when I was a child. I see image after image that is going to come THROUGH me and into this world as permanent marks on skin. I see countless stories unfolding on the arms, legs and torsos of people and I consider it an honor to be an illustrator for those stories.