Carl Hallowell Blog | Traditional Japanese Irezumi & Tebori Tattoos

“Behind the Ink” by Lombardo Avila

Posted by Carl Hallowell
On May 7, 2017

Please welcome my first guest article ever on my website, “Behind the Ink” by Lombardo Avila. Lombardo is a great young customer of mine, perhaps an old soul, maybe just a hard worker, above all a good person. Pictured is his sleeve which I helped to create. I handled the praying hands, La luna, Atlas, […]

Freak Show Traditional Tattoo Theme

Posted by Carl Hallowell
On April 29, 2017

Big Jim, “That Old Guy”, takes the tattoo cake this month with this outrageous forearm tattoo inspired by the sideshow banners of the old carnival days, and by the freaks, geeks, and oddities that were depicted on them. I was excited to turn this into a traditional pin up girl tattoo with traditional tattoo lettering, […]

American Traditional Tattoo in Dallas

Posted by Carl Hallowell
On March 20, 2017

Young Graylin’s traditional clipper ship tattoo would have to take the cake for the first tattoo of the month in this new section of my website. The choice was hard- the traditional tattoos I get to create are like children, you cannot have a favorite one. In choosing I scrolled through my photos of the […]

Flashed Out

Posted by Carl Hallowell
On February 2, 2017

This is a view from the Heart in Hand Gallery from the back door at the end of the night. Already there is a sentimental feeling, flipping off the lights after the last customer is gone, staring down the hallway at the Sailor Jerry, Ed Hardy, Bob Roberts, Horiyoshi 3 and Richard Stell flash, among […]

Heart in Hand Gallery

Posted by Carl Hallowell
On January 25, 2017

With my new website now online, I wanted to share a work picture from the still new Heart in Hand Gallery, right here on Elm Street. This is the all private, all appointment only tattoo studio for the thriving street shop Elm Street Tattoo. Located in Deep Ellum also, Heart in Hand attempts to bring […]

Yang advancing over Yin

Posted by Carl Hallowell
On December 27, 2015

Mr Z has conquered another session. He drives up from Austin to get tattooed here in Dallas. This work in progress is executed with the traditional and singular black ink of Japanese tattooing, sumi. It must be hand ground and prepared for each tattoo, one at a time. I am very proud to work […]

Japan, Land of A Thousand Mysteries

Posted by Carl Hallowell
On November 24, 2015

Japan is the jewel center of the arts. Stretching backwards into time, nothing has been undone, or taken away. The rich tapestry of symbols, of images, of virtues, has only been added to. Modern glass buildings spring up around Shinto shrines that are hundreds of years old. Uniformed schoolchildren bounce past monks under large, pointy […]

The Flower Priest

Posted by Carl Hallowell
On October 16, 2015

What to say of this, a piece I worked on for years, on a great friend and a great artist, who’s strength is equal to his talent… Over and over what impresses me is the ability of my customers to stand up to the intense physical pain of tattooing… This pain is especially excruciating when […]

Peacock works for a cover up

Posted by Carl Hallowell
On October 8, 2015

Sitting up late working, maybe its not tattooing, not painting… Strangely, its writing, one of the first art forms I ran to, after I had read the lyric sheets for everyone from 7 Seconds to The Smiths, even as I recoiled from the reading assignments in english class… school sucked. I had my friend draw […]

Autumn Mix Irezumi

Posted by Carl Hallowell
On September 21, 2015

Every customer is just as important as the next one. “You are only as good as your last tattoo.” And yet, there is an added pressure when you know the tattoo will be seen more than others, or, when you know that you will see the tattoo more than others. But it is a pressure […]

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