The Best Tattoo Artist in Dallas, Episode 13

The jumping off point is important in all things. Do we plan endlessly, or rush in without a single thought? Are we the kind to just talk about it? Or are we the type to attack and achieve the desired action? When the task is complete, do we pat ourselves on the back, tear ourselves down, or are we at peace with a middle way? Do we make excuses for what we lack? Do we simply blindly stand behind what we have done? Or do we honestly assess our little victories and failures within the project? Do we posture, attempting to hoodwink the other that we are larger than we are? Do we shrink back into the shadows and cower in insecurity? Maybe we assert our own dignity and allow others the chance to assert theirs. Maybe we freely give away respect. Maybe we think respect must be earned.

The Artistic Process Of A Great Tattoo Artist In Dallas

The artistic process fascinates me greatly. I don’t even understand my own! I do work on my process though, over and over. I am at one with it. Maybe that is why it is still a little unknown to me. How accurately is each one of us allowed to see ourselves? But that is unimportant, what is exhilarating is going along for the ride! This is the artistic journey. Are tattoos the ultimate in art? This tiny, marginal art form that used to exist in only the smallest and most shadowy areas? This once almost subterranean practice of marking the body like savages while the industrial world grinded around us? And in particular the strength of pure American Traditional Tattooing is this the ultimate in any art?

Most would scoff at the very thought. But I remember a time. It is a time I reminisce about with my clients over and over again. It was the moment my eyes first looked upon a traditional pinup girl tattoo done by Eric Maaske. At once, the power hit me, and passed through me, and nourished me, and destroyed all prior precepts of art in an unapologetic visual onslaught of bold lines and strength of attitude. Van Gogh disappeared, Redon reduced to rubble. Dali was decimated. Escher was eschewed. Picasso was Pabloed. Even Hokusai, mighty with the brush as he was, was exposed as too elegant, too refined, for an emerging age that would hunger for raw power.

Page after page of panthers, pin-ups, and pike lettering. The magazine pages went up in flames in my hands, just like flames blazed behind tattooed girls faces, old school Mercurys, dice and cards. The images of luck and love intertwined. The cool of total power conquered all other thought. These images were alive! These images were life. These were real American tattoos. Maaske had studied the masters, copied them, and ultimately, created his own world, becoming a master himself.

The Young Master Hearkens Back To The Old

Maaske’s work was pure horsepower. His was real-world pedal to the medal, buddy. A what you see is what you get real-world straightforwardism. But he was just the doorway, albeit a grand, stately, muscular, American doorway.

He led the way back to Sailor Jerry. He led the way back to Rollo too. Now that my eyes were open, I was ready for the one-two punch of the classic American traditional tattoo. Now I had trouble seeing anything else. Now I understood. I left the tattoo parlor where I was having a traditional Japanese tattoo put on. I drew a lucky black cat head. I used as few lines as I could and then I shaded it black until it wouldn’t take anymore shading. I colored the tongue red and the eyes yellow and it was done. It was the best thing I had ever drawn. I had tried to make it look like Maaske did it.

This episode was written by Carl Hallowell, one of the best tattoo artist in Dallas, Texas. He now spends his days preserving the traditional Japanese style tattoo, so look him up for that. Or, if you want to take him back to the days of his American traditional work he sang praises to in the above, maybe he can work you into the schedule somehow. Either way, use the contact form  NOW to schedule your appointment with Carl at one of the best tattoo shops in Dallas.