BIOGRAPHY
THE EARLY YEARS
My fascination with tattooing began at a very early age. During high school I was always drawing on myself with pen. My friends would join in and we would draw in each other to see who could come up with the best concepts. My art teacher encouraged me to include photographs of these drawings in my final art portfolio. After high school, I did a 12-month art course. By the time I finished, tattooists in my area were still few and far between. As much as I tried, I could not find any way or means to get my hands on equipment.
LUCKY BREAK
A few years later (in 1989) as I was working in the field of engineering, I got my lucky break. A colleague of mine had a friend in the game who was good enough to give me the contacts and direction needed to finally break into the scene. I was 19 back then with a hell of a lot to learn, and a long hard road in front of me. Like many others in my shoes at the time, there was not a lot of decent tuition around and the hassle of obtaining equipment was like pulling teeth. It all came from the U. S. and we didn’t have the Internet like we do today but it was all phone, fax and wire-transfer.
THE GENESIS OF INKSPRESSIT
I started tinkering with machines, milling frames from solid alloy (tractor tingers), setting up some masters and getting casts made. Trial and error was all I had to work with, as there was no one around to learn machines from and boy did I make some mares.
By the mid 00s, I had started to get more serious with Machines. I was still dropping a few mares but I got a bit more consistent and finally I got to a point where I had things sorted and styles that worked for me.
TODAY
Over the last four to five years, I believe my machines have gone from strength to strength. I enjoy challenging myself and putting art into function. While I love clean simple lines and builds, I still get the most enjoyment out of completely and utterly adulterating a frame and trying to get it to a point where it almost comes to life.
My aim with machines is simple, to make functional pieces for the working artist and if that involves fully flaring the tool all the better, just don’t ask me to clean them!!!