Levi's Intro

[Levi Smith]

I have been tattooing for 6 years, starting out at Artistic Tattoo as an apprentice and now back at Artistic Tattoo as it's Shop Manager. I consider myself an artist first, tattooist second, and pursued a professional career as an artist for more than 20 years. I studied Computer Animation and visual communication at the Art Institute of Phoenix, spent 5 years as a professional and freelance Graphic designer, in addition to self-publishing underground comics for approx 6 years (I still have a few more in me). Through all this I've held jobs as a picture framer, framing original pieces from Picasso, Manet, Goya, and Dali (yes, Salvador) and taken a wide variety of Art jobs from window design for restaurants (Haus Murphy's in Glendale, AZ) vinyl graphics, t-shirts, and the like. I am also working on a series of sketchbooks.

Art is more than a passion or a job for me, it's an obsession and release valve, and I will continue to make art until well after they put me in the ground.

I don't have specific styles or strengths, though I tend to enjoy the dark and disturbed kind of art, skulls, monsters, werewolves, creepy trees, and unusual abstract imagery that provokes a sense of unease.

[Dan S]

Damn, man, you do have it going on! Maybe do an original painting, tattoo it on someone, build a comic around it, frame it, then make an animated series of progressions of it!

Seriously, I'm jealous. I can't "art" worth a damn. I have ideas locked in my head, but my hands just won't let them come out! I've done some ornamental ironwork, and some (very) amateur hand-tattooing way back when, but just don't have the chops to do more than appreciate someone who can make art that really touches something in people.

Looking forward to reading about and seeing more of your work as you move around the boards!

Dan

[hogg]

Welcome, and thanks for the nice intro!

[gougetheeyes]

Welcome dude! Does Levi always refer to himself in the third person?