MD Tattoo Artists
 Mike DeVries - view tattoos! - email artist
WWW.MDTATTOOS.COM
I was born in ‘79 and was raised in Southern California; in and around the Encino area, about 20 minutes north of Hollywood. I’ve always been into art, ever since I was little; always doodling scary faces on any piece of paper I could find. My appreciation for art really started when I got into collecting comic books.I loved the style of art; my favorite had to be the Spawn comics.
After I graduated high school in '97, I went straight to work with my old man in construction, doing mostly residential remodeling. It pretty much sucked... actually it wasn't so bad. I thought I would be doing it forever and eventually, one day, taking over the family business. I remember when I was about 16 years old, a buddy of mine came by to show me his new tattoo, and of course the next day I had to go get one. I did ask my parents for permission and I was very surprised they said "yes". It was all over after that. I was hooked and I thought that was just the coolest job ever. I continued to get tattooed for years and I always paid close attention to the art and the process of tattooing, not knowing I would ever actually be doing it. I didn't really know how to start, but knew it was for me. One day, in the beginning of 2003, when I was getting tattooed by Jim Hayek, he offered to teach me, after a random talk about it. I had to scrounge up some cash and do some construction work on his home in order to apprentice. I didn't waste any time. I started working on his house the next day and soon after, he started teaching me. It was a short apprenticeship, a few months of training, Right away, I went and bought all the necessary equipment and started tattooing on all my buddies, after work and on weekends. Within a year, I was able to quit work with my Dad and do this full-time. It has been great, and has turned my life into an art world. Most of the time it doesn't even seem like work, it’s more like, I get to do a great hobby all day, every day.
I started to get back into painting and other art mediums after seeing a couple of Jim's paintings. I wanted to buy one off of him. He had done a cool painting of Kid Rock. I asked him how much he wanted for it and he said, "come over and I will teach you how to do it yourself." That day, I went out and bought an easel and some cheap paint brushes and I started doing that in my spare time. Jim did the rock stars and since I’m a big movie fan, I did some of my favorite movie characters and scenes. So far, I’ve only painted on big canvases with acrylic paint but I would love to try oils and get into airbrushing one day. I haven't done a lot of paintings, but you can check them out in the galleries link. I haven't painted in over a year, but be on the lookout for more soon!
Some of my art inspirations are M.c. Escher and Salvador Dali, which are two of my favorites. As well as Kunio Hagio and Michael Godard. For my tattoo inspirations there are so many awesome tattoo artists to list and that I look up to; but to name a few,would have to be: Bob Tyrell, Tom Renshaw, Robert Hernandez, Joe Capobianco, Guy Atchison, Nick Baxter, and my buddies Carson Hill and Mike de Masi. And last, but not least, Big Jim Hayek. If it wasn't for him, I would still be diggin’ ditches!
And now I’m hoping to expand my abilities, to achieve the utmost realistic pieces on skin. Portraits, animals and pin-ups are my favorite things to do; anything that is real. With all the amazing artists out there and the great artists I mentioned above, who produce kick ass work, day in and day out, it drives me to do great work and to push the limits as well.
 Jeff Johnson - view tattoos! - email artist
I cant remember a time in my life when art didn't play a role. When I was a young child my mother would draw figures of
people and I'd draw faces and clothes on them. These were the earliest memories of art. All through grade and high school drew the days away, art classes were really the only ones that held my attention at all. After high school I wasn't really sure what to do so I took a few art classes at the local community college while working construction during the day. One evening an old friend Carson Hill invited me over to hang out. Carson had tattooed me in the past, and we admired each others drawings back in the day, so of course the conversation turned to how he was doing as a tattooist. Eventually he offered to teach me the craft and it sounded great. I worked construction by day and spent the evenings with Carson learning to tattoo. After about six months i started tattooing part time out of my home and after another six months i was tattooing full time. I worked next to Carson and his home studio for about a year and then worked in hollywood for a while. Eventually i started to work for my own studio in Newbury Park and started doing conventions to break the monotony. Which brings me to where I am now at MD Tattoos.
As far as tattooing goes, I enjoy doing all different styles of work and focusing my talents on bio/ abstract art. I also enjoy painting with acrylic and oils. As for inspiration there are so many I could go on forever but to name a few there is Alex Grey, Guy Aitchison, Chat Czar, HR Geiger, and my friends Nathan Kostecko and of course Carson Hill. For the future, i plan on doing a lot of traveling while further honing my painting and tattooing skills.
 Cecil Porter - view tattoos! - email artist
I started in art around the age of 13, my dad had passed away and my mother had moved us up to where her family was. At the school I was attending I knew no one and the only people who would talk to me where these group of people who liked to draw comic characters. So in an effort to make friends I started to draw when ever I could I found out I liked it, alot. I graduated at age 16 and started working for a small independent comic book company out of Cincinnati but I was not making much money so I got a part time job where I worked one of the guys would come up to me all the time and tell me that my art was good and I should go talk to his brother who was a tattooist. I blew it off thinking that tattoos where for bikers. Keep in mind this was 10 almost 11 years ago and tattoos where not as out in the public as they are today. Well bills kept coming but money wasn't so I decided I would go talk to him and see what he had to say
Instantly I knew what I thought about tattooing was wrong and that this was something I would be interested in so I asked him if he would teach me he said no. What he did do for me was tattoo me for free and give me an autoclave and said if I had any questions to call. Well I took a loan out of the bank got a couple machines and started looking for an apprenticeship. I could not find one, no one would even consider it no matter how much I bothered them. Where I am from in Ohio tattooing out of your house is no joke. They would arrest you, take your equipment and never let you tattoo in the county you were found in again so I didn't want to take that route but it seemed I didn't have a choice.
I started tattooing myself and friends keeping a low profile if I knew someone who would get a tattoo, I would attempt to do it. I sucked and I knew it, so after trying to do this part time for 6 years I basically quit. For 3 years I paid tattooing almost no attention. Hating life, my job, everything. I started thinking to the last time I was happy and every time it brought me back to when I was tattooing so I started again.
I started tattooing like crazy looking at everyones art and how it had changed since I was first trying to do this. I loved it! It had come so far in such a short time and I wanted to be a part of it more than ever. So I started to put the word out that I was tattooing out of my house and people just started to show up. I tattooed everything just to do it except gang related sacrilegious or raciest stuff. I didn't want to be attached to that you know.
I contacted a ton of shops and the only one that didn't flat out say no was a shop an hour and a half away in Cleveland called 252tattoo so I started calling 3 times a week. After a couple weeks they let me come in and tattoo a friend in front of them. I did the tattoo and they said to leave and call back in a couple days. I didn't know what was up I didn't get a good job or its ok nothing just call in a couple days. I called 2 days later and they told me to come in and tattoo another friend. So I did and again I got the call back in a couple days so I did. This time they told me to come in alone and be there at 2 o'clock. I showed up and they had a station set up told me to tattoo till close. I had made enough money to pay my rent , in one day, I was elated. Then they came in and told me to call back in a couple days ,what the hell was going on? Well this game went on for about a month then they offered me a job and I was in a great shop for the first time since I had started tattooing.
Around 4 months later I was talking to my boss and he was complaining that no one there really did any realism. I told him I would try and learn it. He told me that you either could do portraits or you couldn't and he was doubtful that I could. Well it drove me crazy to be told I couldn't do something so I bought the Josh Carlton video, watched it, lined up a free tattoo on a friend busted out a 15 mag for the first time and did my first portrait. I was hooked. I loved it. It was the most fun I ever had tattooing and I started devoting all my time to getting better at realism.
A few months later Hellcity was rollin through Columbus and I knew the three guys I looked up to the most in color portraits where going to be there Nikko, Mike Devires and Roman so I took my portfolio drove three hrs and hoped to get critiqued by all three. I met all three there got critiqued by mike and roman and watched nikko work on a piece for a bit.
I then took mikes seminar and after waited for him and when the crowd dispersed, I went up to him again to thank him for being so cool throughout the day. After talking to him for a minute, I asked him how do you go about getting your name out there and getting into a high profile shop. He asked to see my portfolio again and said I shouldn't have a hard time at all and didn't understand why I was having such a hard time. I told him no one wanted to hire me until 252 and he replied, "Well I would hire you."
I said, "Well I wish everyone had that point of view."
"No, I'll hire you.", he said, "I am opening a shop in a couple months and I have a spot open."
"Hell Yeah!", I said, "If you want me to fly back with you Sunday I will." I was ready to go.
He told me to e-mail him and he would get back to me. So a couple of days later I e-mailed and told him I had thought it over and wanted to move out there and work for him, his response, nothing. A couple of days later I e-mailed again and told him I wanted the job and again... nothing. So it began like clockwork; I would e-mail him every other day with all my information. About a month later he sent me an e-mail that had his phone number and said to call. Which I did as soon as I read it. I drove out 9 days later and now work for him.
Realism is definitely what I enjoy to tattoo the most and would like to thank Rodney Rose. If he wouldn't have given me a shot at 252 I'd still be working out of my house ,Roman just for being so cool with me, and Mike for giving me my dream job.
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