Tattoo Artist Hall of Fame - Your Nominees?

[otisc]

As far as I can tell, there is no official Tattoo Artist Hall of Fame.

In this thread, I ask you to nominate five artists, plus one honorable mention, for the "first class" of the unofficial Tattoo Hall of Fame. The nominations should be based on a combination of talent, influence, importance to the industry, reputation, and overall body of work.

I know a lot of people who work in the industry read/post here, so I am really interested in hearing who you all would nominate.

[marley mission]

@otisc you are throwing down heavy duty threads tonight

i tell ya - i just hesitate to nominate someone

i almost feel i'm too new to being tattooed to put down an opinion

i'm curious to see what names come up in this thread though

i feel i have been tattooed by some really amazing tattooers too

but i feel like to nominate someone for a hall of fame 'status'

its a bit tough i feel to pick one over another

so many good tattooers

[Synesthesia]

I assume you're looking for living artists. It is really tough to pick, I'll name the first few that come to my mind, in no real order. I mostly did this based on who I felt was the most "important" to modern tattooing.

Chris Conn - His lady heads have inspired damn near every artist doing lady heads after him. A lot of his flash is iconic and still being riffed on today

Dan Higgs - The enigma...his tattoos and flash have so much character to them, and he brought an occult influence to tattooing that is still popular today

Chris Garver - A huge influence on and master of American and Japanese traditional tattoos. Also, as much as we might hate it, the show Miami Ink he was a part of brought tattooing in the mainstream. A lot of what Garver did on there is just little walk ins that weren't special, but anyone who looked him up would be blown away by what he was doing off the show

Freddy Corbin - Hugely influential on the west coast style and anyone trying to emulate that look, he did some great things with bringing religious symbolism into tattooing

Ed Hardy - Probably my #1 choice, off the top of my head. A student of Sailor Jerry, so obviously he has the classic look down and designed tons of iconic flash, but he also really came into his own with a wild and loose west coast style of American traditional. His dragons and morphs I think have been especially influential on others. And again, with his clothing line and perfumes and all that, I think the average person is at least somewhat familiar with him and he therefore brought some attention to traditional tattooing.

Honorable mention would probably be reserved for a newer guy who will continue to have a strong impact...I'm going to go with Steve Byrne. I think his portfolio is pretty much flawless as far as bright and bold traditional, and I am always amazed by his creativity. He mixes old and new ideas and his tattoos feel classic and fresh at the same time. I think future generations will really hold him to high regard.

[otisc]

Living or dead. I know a lot of people inside the industry read/post here, and those that collect tattoos here seem to be knowledgeable... so I'm wondering who is on your Mt. Rushmore.

 

[bongsau]

Paul Jeffries

[rufio]

What @marley mission has said. Im even newer. The only two i can think of are guy aitchison and aaron cain.

[bellabee]

Bruce Bart is the godfather for me. He is one that really helped to build a solid tattoo community in South Florida and upstate NY for decades. Friends with and tattooed along side many famous artists. An older artist now retired. But wow, the pictures this man has!