Luke Wessman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | |
| Occupation | Tattoo Artist, Designer, Television Personality |
| Style | Gangster Traditional |
| Website | lukewessman |
Luke Wessman is an American tattoo artist and designer. [1] He was featured on the TLC reality shows Miami Ink and NY Ink . [2] [3]
Wessman was born on a communal farm in Tennessee where his parents had been living and working as part of a hippie community. Shortly after he was born, his family hitchhiked across America and settled in Oceanside, California, where Luke grew up. [1] [4]
Wessman received his first tattoo when he was sixteen-years-old from a family friend tattooing out of his house. [1] [5] He continued to acquire tattoos and eventually befriended a group of tattooers who had opened a shop named About Face Tattoo. It was the only shop in town because tattooing had been outlawed in San Diego County in the decades prior. Wessman began to learn a variety of tattoo styles at the shop, where the clientele included sailors, pimps, and prostitutes. [1] One of the About Face Tattoo artists, Milford Barnes, moved to Lucky's Tattoo Parlor, a well-known shop in San Diego, CA, owned and operated by Dave Gibson, and Wessman followed him there to begin an unofficial apprenticeship. [5] At the time, Wessman was working as an electrician. He would work as an electrician in the morning and spend his evenings apprenticing at the tattoo shop. Eventually, a spot/opportunity became available and he began tattooing full-time. [1] [5] At age 21, Wessman bought Lucky's Tattoo Parlor, which he owned and operated for ten years with fellow tattoo artist Shane Modica. [1]
From 2005 to 2010, Wessman worked at Love Hate Tattoo and was featured on the TLC reality TV show Miami Ink . After the show ended, Wessman spent some time traveling and working in Scotland, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, and Germany. In 2010, Wessman moved to New York City to help Ami James open the Wooster Street Social Club. The shop and its crew, including Wessman, were the focus of the TLC reality TV show NY Ink . Wessman did the first tattoo at the shop. [6] In 2014, he was a guest judge on Spike TV's Ink Master . [2] [3] He has written for Inked , [7] was featured on the cover of Freshly Inked, and has been profiled in several style magazines and websites, including GQ , The Coveteur, Bound by Ink, and Style.com, among others. In 2014, Wessman designed a limited-edition postcard featuring the phrase #govote for HeadCount, a nonpartisan organization that promotes participation in democracy. The postcards were distributed at music concerts, including Jay Z and Beyoncé's “On the Run” tour. [8] [9] [10]
In 2015, Wessman opened The Summertown Inn, a private tattoo studio in an undisclosed location in Orange County. It's named after the town in Tennessee where he was born, and is fashioned after a speakeasy. There's no sign out front and clients come on a referral basis. [2] [11]
Wessman is also a Master Freemason and has been active in Freemasonry for over 5 years. [11]
Wessman's style has been described as "Gangster Traditional," which is the merging of two distinct styles. [1] [5] The "gangster" style was influenced by the tattoos characteristic of the street culture he grew up around in Oceanside – Old English and block letters, Catholic imagery, black and gray coloring, etc. [5] The "traditional" style stems from his apprenticeship at Lucky's Tattoo Parlor where tattoos closely resemble Sailor Jerry inspired style designs, which favor bold outlines, deep black shading, and images often associated with sailors, bikers and outlaw culture. [1] [2] Wessman avoids doing tattoos that are photo realistic or tribal. He prefers "tattoos that look like tattoos – not paintings or other styles and mediums of art." He also uses discretion when tattooing faces, hands or necks, and will only do so if the customer is a highly covered tattoo collector. [12] He has tattooed dozens of celebrities, including Dave Navarro, CM Punk, Matt Holliday, and Silkk Tha Shocker, among others. [1] [13] Wessman himself has over 50 tattoos done by over 30 different artists. [1] [12]
A tattoo is a form of body modification where a design is made by inserting ink, dyes and pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. The art of making tattoos is tattooing.
Paul John Teutul is the founder of Orange County Choppers, a manufacturer of custom motorcycles and the focus of the reality television series American Chopper. Teutul first appeared on the show with his sons Paul Teutul Jr. and Michael Teutul. In 2013 his new show Orange County Choppers premiered on CMT
Miami Ink is an American reality show on TLC that follows the events that took place at a tattoo shop in Miami Beach, Florida. The show premiered in July 2005 and finished broadcasting its sixth and final season in 2008. The show led to several spin-offs, including the shows LA Ink, London Ink, NY Ink, and Madrid Ink, most of which were also broadcast on TLC.
Katherine Von Drachenberg, known as Kat Von D, is a Mexican tattoo artist, model, musician, author, entrepreneur, and television personality. She is best known for her work as a tattoo artist on the TLC reality television show LA Ink, which premiered in the United States on August 7, 2007, and ran for four seasons. She is also known for being the former head of Kat Von D Beauty.
Chris Garver is an American tattoo artist and television personality, best known for his appearance on the TLC reality television show Miami Ink.
Ami James is an Israeli-American tattoo artist, television personality and entrepreneur
Chris Nuñez is an American tattoo artist, television personality and entrepreneur, who has been a tattoo artist for 28 years as of 2019. He is the owner of Handcrafted Tattoo And Art Gallery, a tattoo shop located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and a judge on the Paramount TV network's reality competition, Ink Master, in which tattoo artists compete in challenges assessing their tattoo and related artistic skills. Previously, Nunez was one of the featured tattoo artists on TLC's reality television program Miami Ink.
Darren Brass is an American tattoo artist and television personality He was featured in the reality television show Miami Ink.
Black-and-gray is a style of tattooing that uses only black ink in varying shades and typically uses a single needle. This tattooing style is thought to have originated from prisons in the 1970s and 1980s and was later popularized in tattoo parlors.
LA Ink is an American reality television show on TLC that follows the events of the High Voltage Tattoo tattoo studios in Los Angeles, California. The spin-off of TLC's Miami Ink, premiered on August 7, 2007.
Tattoo Highway is a documentary television series about a tattoo artist, Thomas Pendelton driving around the American Southwest with his crew in a tattoo shop converted bus. It premiered on A&E Network Wednesday May 27, 2009.
Old school style refers to a Western or traditional American tattoo style featuring bold black outlines and a limited color palette. This limited color palette typically included yellow, red, green and black. Purple was eventually added to it as well.
Corey Miller is a tattoo artist and television personality. He began tattooing at the age of 15. He is the owner of a tattoo shop in Upland, California called Six Feet Under. He was one of the core tattoo artists on the reality television show LA Ink.
NY Ink is an American reality documentary television series that debuted June 2, 2011 on TLC. TLC renewed the series for a second season in August 2011, also noting that the series' first season averaged 1.3 million viewers per episode. Filming for the third season started in August 2012 with the season premiering on April 4, 2013.
Amy Nicoletto is an American tattoo artist and television personality most known for her appearances as a tattoo artist on the TLC reality television show LA Ink. Her name is sometimes misspelled as Nicoletti or Nicoletta.
September Morn was a two-reel silent comedy film produced by Pathé and released in 1914. Inspired by Paul Chabas' September Morn, it followed a young sailor who had a nude figure tattooed on his chest but was forced to tattoo clothes on the figure. This now-lost film was reviewed positively in The Moving Picture World.
Brücius is an American born tattoo artist specializing in blackwork tattoos with a preference for fine lines and etchings.
Keith Scott "Bang Bang" McCurdy is an American celebrity tattoo artist based in New York. He is known for his work with Cara Delevingne, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, LeBron James, Adele, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Kylie Jenner.
Ryan Ashley Malarkey is an American tattoo artist known for her appearances on the television shows Ink Master and its spin-offs. Her signature style reflects her training and experience as a fashion designer: Malarkey specializes in black-and-gray designs with beadwork, lace detail, and ornamental jewels. Malarkey won Ink Master's season eight competition in 2016 and in the following three years, hosted two seasons of a spin-off show (Angels) and served as a judge in another spin-off. Malarkey also owns two oddities and antiques shops in Pennsylvania.
Jonathan Dowling Shaw is an American tattoo artist and writer. He founded New York City's oldest tattoo shop, Fun City Tattoo, in 1976, before tattooing was legal in the city.