Kit-Kat

Katherine Von Drachenberg, also known as Kat Von D. is a model, musician and a world class tattoo artist. She was born in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon in Mexico March 8, 1982 and moved to the states at the age of four. At the young age of 14, Kat Von D got her first tattoo and like some other tattoo artists, started tattooing by trial and error by willing customers. After noticing that the art of tattooing came naturally to her, she decided to begin her career and began working in her first professional shop in the year of 1998, Sin City Tattoo. At the age of 16, Kat dropped out of school to continue her dream as a professional tattoo artist. Currently booked completely with high demand, the public know her as a great artist who takes her time doing what she loves. She is mainly known for her portrait style of tattooing. Kat Von D credits her close ties with her family including her grandmother, Clara Von Drachenberg who Kat credits as a large part of inspiration in her life concerning music and the arts.

August 7 2007, LA Ink was introduced as a new American reality show on TLC that Kat Von D and other high end artists well known in North America. This show was launched after Kat Von D left the cast of Miami Ink and went to LA to begin her own show as a owner/manager of the shop "High Voltage Tattoo". This show invites people to come on the show to get tattoos by the great artists and allows them to get on the show speaking upon why they are getting the tattoo, and what the significant meaning of the art is to them. After 84 episodes and 4 seasons, in September 15, 2011 the show had come to an end, but Kat is still available for tattooing in this location. Besides her show and very successful store, Kat also created and launched a new make-up line for the famous high end shop, Sephora. Many successful tattoo artists such as Kat Von D launch different lines of products because they become successful and in demand. In the High Voltage Tattoo shop, there are goods available for sale with shop logos and Kat's name.

Kat Von D leaving Miami Ink and starting fresh in LA 

You can follow Kat Von D on:

Instagram

Twitter

Facebook

Here is a request form if you want to get tattooed by her at High Voltage Tattoo!

Request Form

Buccaneer

Norman "Sailor Jerry" Collins is a known as a sailor, radio host, and of course a world famous tattoo artist. Sailor Jerry first began tattooing as a teenager, he would hand poke tattoo designs into brave individuals who would allow him to, this started off Sailor Jerry's new and soon-to-be hobby and talent. In the 1920's Jerry arrived to Chicago and met with his first teacher, Gib "Tatts" Thomas who introduced Jerry to the tattoo machine. The famous artist passed away June 12 1973 at the age of 62, but his legend still lives on and the name is still recognized by many.

Norman Collins (Sailor Jerry) was known for keeping a tidy work space and clean tattooing tools. Back in the day tattooing was more of an underground and private shop owned and so sterilization of needles and tools was not very common, Jerry decided this needed to change. Tattooing was big in the sailor scene, and so Jerry got more exposed to the art when he was in the Great Lakes Naval Academy. Sailing the China seas, Jerry developed a love for the Asian style tattooing and so he brought the style of art over to North America and began exposing it more on the tattoo culture. He took the art of tattooing to a different level that people back in the day weren't used to by adding vibrant colors, designs and his distinct ways of drawing his pieces. Sailor Jerry is also popular for his "classic" tattooing style which is colorful and simplistic images such as skulls, birds, daggers, and anchors. The meaning behind some of the popular designs can be seen here (Official Sailor Jerry web page). Other successes under the famous name include his own clothing brand (Sailor Jerry Clothing) which is popular within the tattooing community. The brands of his logo are things like anchors and ships representing his relations to the naval academy and the origination of tattoos in North America. Along with a clothing line, Sailor Jerry also has a very popular rum that you can find and buy locally at an LCBO!

Sailor Jerry's Rum Commercial 

Irezumi

Horiyoshi III Nakano Yoshihito is an artist that specializes in full body tattooing. If you don't know what that is, here is an example...

Not many artists in the tattooing industry dedicate themselves to full body Japanese "Suits", as they call it. This is a very time consuming tattooing style that most definitely take more than one single session to complete.This specific type of tattooing requires a lengthy planning process especially if you would like a custom suit instead of one the artist had made ahead of time. The Japanese style of art is called "Irezumi" or "Horimono".

Horiyoshi III was born in Japan on March 9th 1946 and has 40 years of experience in tattooing Irezumi. Horiyoshi's name comes from "Hori" in Japanese, which means "to engrave". This title was passed down to Horiyoshi III in order to carry on the traditional Japanese tattoo legacy. Horiyoshi main expertise revolves around his skill with the traditional tattooing manner without the use of an electrical machine, just a manual needle. This is a lengthier and of course more painful process. (Short clip below showing the procedure of traditional tattooing)

Horiyoshi III's talent has brought him a very long way, he launched a very exclusive high end clothing line by the name of "Horiyoshi the third", this was a big seller in top shops around the world. He has also founded the "Yokohama Tattoo Museum" in the year 2000. In this Museum, Horiyoshi III shows off collections of valuable art pieces and tattooing artifacts. There has also been many book publications to do with Horiyoshi. Many of the people who used the Irezumi style tattooing were in underground Japanese mafia and gangs so this style of tattoo was looked down upon and banned from multiple things including public hot springs and pools/showers. Horiyoshi was said to have Yakuza (Japanese organized crime) ties, thus exploiting him to the underground art and making himself more familiar with this style of tattooing.


More of Horiyoshi III's work can be seen here. (WARNING: Nudity)

Miami's Finest

Miami, Florida is a beautiful place with great beaches, warm weather and palm trees and people love showing off their skin. There are many tattoo parlors of all types regarding prices and styles, but a very well known stop shop in Miami is "Love Hate Tattoo" which is co-owned by a popular artist by the name of Ami James. You may recognize him from the award winning show Miami Ink. In this show many people came in with stories and wishes to get a beautiful piece done by him or other award winning artists working the shop. This shop opened in 2004 by the name of 305 (The Miami area code), but soon after before Miami Ink the name was changed to what it is now. Ami James was born April 6, 1972 and got his first tattoo when he was only 15, giving him the desire to become a world star tattoo artist. As of now his average charge is said to be $500 / hour for his work, and he has a net worth of $5.1 Million.

In 1992 Ami James started an apprenticeship with an artist by the name of Lou at the shop "Tattoos By Lou". When Miami Ink picked up in 2004 on TLC, Ami started getting more relevance and being more popular in the tattooing industry as the great artist he is. As of now the show Miami Ink has 6 seasons, this show also encouraged other similar shows such as LA Ink. Along with being the Co-Owner of Miami Ink, Ami also has several clothing companies such as DeVille and has invested in jewelry lines such as Love Hate Choppers Jewelry. Ami's love for tattooing has brought him a long way from owning shops, to shows, and clothing/jewelry brands. His success in the industry is evidence of the hard work and patience put into his dreams.

In this video, Ami is doing work for a teacher, putting a Geisha on her back in the show Miami Ink.

You can follow him on...

Twitter: @amijames 

Instagram: amijames1

*Dragon Tattoo retrieved from Ami Jame's Instagram

The Great Art

"You get what you paid for" is a big saying when it comes to the art of Tattooing. Anybody can do a tattoo on anybody, but it is the quality of the art that counts when it comes down to it. Finding a good tattoo artist is not tough, but finding an excellent one is, and as always you should be ready to spend a little money. The main thing to look out for when searching for a tattoo artist is the style of tattoo the artist specializes in, for example...

Portrait Style (Roman Abrego Tattooing)



Asian Style (Chronic Ink Toronto Shop)

Bio Mechanical (BioMech) 

  

These are just some of the incredible pieces done by very talented and hard working artists. One of my favorite artist is Roman Abrego (he did the Bob Marley piece). Roman was featured in a show season one of Best Ink. Roman is also a talented artist who has won many awards for the work he has completed, with only 12 years experience in the industry. Roman is currently in his early 30's and has two daughters, he had two large Mexican families which raised him and always had love for the art. When Roman was younger he had gotten into a lot of trouble and soon after ended up in jail for a period of time. Within that time he spent in jail, he familiarized himself with the art more by spending time working on his artistic ability. Once out of jail he decided to change his lifestyle and begin his career. Roman's step father had him working in construction to keep out of trouble, but he did not want to do that for long. Shortly after, Roman was introduced to the art of tattooing and decided this is what his dream was. He is currently the owner of Artistic Element in California and many famous people go to him to get inked such as the rapper Game and many more. His tattoo style is portraits and BioMech, anything with a lot of color blend and mixture. A lot of his art can be seen here.