Oliver McQuitty

I got this done in 1998, it’s a T26 dingbat (T26 is a type foundry). When it was originally done, the guy who did it butchered me, it’s been re-inked once... about time for another re-inking.

Troy Valls

This ink symbolizes my birth sign – Capricorn. Created by our very own Liz Hepburn, now in our Portland office, back when we worked together at BBH. I had scoured the Internet for several variations on symbolic representations of the sign and provided them to her for inspiration. From them, she created this original. I marked myself in NYC. Next stop, another original depiction of the Phoenix.

Emily McDonald

The one on my left arm symbolizes my star sign. I got it in Israel when I was visiting my dad's family. My tattoo on my right was done when I was drunk in Soho, London. My next tattoo will be on my back, and a larger version of the one on my right arm.

Craig Melchiano

I got most of my tattooes in San Francisco with the exception of 4 here in Amsterdam. I was never much on them having big elaborate stories, most of them are just little thoughts. I was more concerned with having great tattooers doing them and doing their thing. The tattooers I went to, (and they like 'tattooer' from what I have been told, not 'tattoo artist', most of them consider themselves craftsman and not artists.) Anyway, my tattooes are from these guys mostly.

Mike Giant: http://www.mikegiant.com/

Chris Conn: http://www.sekretcity.com/

GRIME: http://www.prickmag.net/grimetattoos.html

Scott Sylvia: http://www.blackhearttattoosf.com/shop/index.aspx

Henry Lewis: http://www.everlastingtattoo.com/

Like I said the stories are simple, East of Eden cause it's the first book I remember reading, love James Dean as well, and there are some MORRISSEY references there. The crying girl wasn't even my idea, Chris surprised me with that one and I liked it, Golden is for Golden State, it says Garden State on the other side, Jersey cause it's where I was born and my dog's name, a chipped gem of some sort, a gargoyle protecting a friend over Paris,and there are others but I thought this was a good example.

Jonas Vail

My first two were on my wrists.I got the stars on my left wrist in January 1995 at Sunset Strip Tattoo http://www.sunsetstriptattoo.com/info.html in LA. My mom died when I was 18. The green parts of the stars form her initials like a monogram EVB. I got the X underneath on the 10 year anniversary of her death, April 7, 2003 at Mom’s Body Shop on Haight Street in San Francisco http://www.momsbodyshop.com/index.html

My right wrist is Kanji, designed by a Japanese art director friend of mine. The bigger bottom character is “Mother”. Though you would probably use Katakana to spell out her name, the two smaller Kanji characters above represent my mother’s name: Eileen. The left character is “ai”, the right is “leen”. “Ai” means love, and “leen” means pride. I got it at Black Wave Tattoo on La Brea in LA http://blackwavetattoo.com/ in August 1997.

My third one is totally meaningless. I was jonesing for a new tattoo. I made the star in Powerpoint! It was for people who sat behind me on the bus to have something to look at (stupid). I didn’t realize how faded it was until I took this picture. I got it in December 2000, at Everlasting in San Francisco, but at their old location on McAllister, before they moved to where they are now on Divis. http://www.everlastingtattoo.com/


My next one was a long time in the making – about 9 years. I am a Capricorn, and a fellow Capricorn friend and I had it drawn by a Hungarian artist called Rita Ackermann http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Ackermann She also designed the cover of Thurston Moore’s 1995 solo album Psychic Hearts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychic_Hearts I also got it at Everlasting, this time on Divis, in March 2004.

Lastly, El Tigre, designed by my good friend Abel Macias http://www.abelmacias.net/ Also a few years in the making. I had him draw me a tiger because I was born in the year of the tiger (1974). I got it done by Duncan – aka Mr. X http://www.duncanx.com/ at Into You Tattoo http://www.into-you.co.uk/index2.php on St. John Street in Clerkenwell in London. I got him done February 17, 2007.

Don’t know what’s next, but looking forward to it.

Mathew Foster

Both pieces are on the inner forearms, and are in the japanese style of ukiyo-e, anold form of woodblock printmaking. The first one is a pretty well known adaptation of the 'Great Wave OffKanagawa' by Hokusai (1760‹1849). When he was 13 or 14 he had a dream ofgetting it placed on his arm, cropped in a circle. It stuck. Since the wave carries such weight, he wanted the other to be lighter and balance it out. He found a modern day ukioyo-e artist named Toshi Yoshida(1911-1995), who made this obscure print called 'Double Cherry' that he stumbled on and loved. More are in the works, and will be in the ukiyo-e style (recommendations for a Portland area artist would be appreciated).

Both were done by one Dr. Julien in 2001 and 2004, in Eugene, Oregon. There's a crappy ass video of the 2nd one being done here: http://www.vimeo.com/41567

More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokusai
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshi_Yoshida

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukiyo-e

Joe Staples

It helps if you have an athletic body part to put your tattoo on and there are few people in the Portland office more fit than Joe. This tattoo reminds Joe to stay in balance. The top two circles are opposites and the bottom circle is everything in one.

Randy Jensen at Avalon Tattoo in San Diego did the work.

Caleb Jensen

This is one of my favorites so far. I wanted to get a tat on my forearm, but I wimped out and went with my calf. Caleb went bold with a cool tribute to his grandfather. This is the brand he used on his ranch in Nebraska.

This is his first one, done at Atlas in Portland, but he is open to more.

Evan Dumas

Under his shirt, our IT friend is hiding the beginnings of a full set of wings he plans to ink on his back. Evan’s dream is to build a flying machine. In fact he dreamed about this all the time as a kid and when he got this tattoo the dreams stopped.

The work was done by Uptown Tattoo in Minneapolis. Check back for updates on this one.

Jay Berry

Jay Berry's artwork is a tribute to his California days. His sleeve is a design of California poppies and star jasmine, that winds up and around his arm. At the top is a family crest that is a tribute to his Irish roots. On his other arm he has a tribute to the Mission District, his San Francisco neighborhood.



All the work was done by Jennifer Billig at Atlas here in Portland.

Aubrey Dean

How much do you have to love Nike to get this tattoo? Not so much as it turns out. Nike or Winged Victory, was a goddess who personified triumph throughout the ages of the ancient Greek culture. Aubrey saw this picture in art history class in high school and decided she would have it inked on her arm one day. Ten years later she found the right person to handle this detailed work - Nate Hudson at Optic Nerve Arts on Alberta in NE Portland. A couple of years after she got the tattoo, she visited the Louvre in Paris and saw the actual Winged Victory in all its glory.



The art history lesson continues. On the inside of her left arm there is a very cool script inking that translates as, "To my one desire." This is from a series of tapestries called "The Lady and the Unicorn" or La Dame à la licorne. There are a series of six tapestries woven in Flanders of wool and silk, from designs drawn in Paris in the late fifteenth century. The suite is often considered one of the greatest works of art of the Middle Ages in Europe. The tapestries are commonly interpreted as depicting the six senses - taste, hearing, sight, smell, touch, and "À mon seul désir" (to my only desire), often interpreted as love or understanding.


And finally we have the early mistake. At 19 she wanted to get a wave in a circle tat. The design is based on a piece of hammered metal, but Aubrey was not happy with how it turned out. She plans to cover it up in the future with a sleve of flowers down her entire right arm.