Tattoo Artist Doug

Doug - Greeley, Colorado, USA

Owner of the Tainted Hearts tattoo studio in Greeley, CO, Doug found a way to capitalize on the artistic talents he developed in junior high. After getting a few tattoos out of high school, he began an apprenticeship at a local shop. As do many tattoo artists, Doug got a lot of his initial practice by tattooing himself.

He says that his tattoo art is typical to that of many artists. That is, he has no definite unifying theme, he has no favorite, and he doesn’t know how many he has. His designs are an interesting combination of skulls, sacred hearts, webs, and the like. A lot of his older art is in the process of being covered up. Currently, his arms are covered, he has some art on his legs and chest, as well as his neck and hands. “I don’t have enough, I know that.” Fortunately, he has artists in his shop who can update his art as need be, though it usually requires Doug tattooing them first.

If he had to choose a favorite, it would be the bio-mechanical design (a baby in a robotic pod) on the inside of his upper right arm. Was it influenced by the “battery-pods” of the Matrix movies? Nope, Doug says. “That’s original. It was actually done before the Matrix even came out. That was done in 1993, ’94 maybe.”

Doug sees both advantages and disadvantages to pre-done flash designs found in many studios. It works best for clients who have an idea of what they want, but have no visuals to work with. Even a bad artist can do a good job with flash. Sadly, however, it often means people don’t put much thought into their designs. Other artists avoid flash altogether. “It’s asking Da Vinci to paint a daisy or something,” Doug comments. Of course, such custom work can be very expensive. Doug enjoys taking a flash design and improving upon it. “I prefer taking a pen – just a regular ball-point pen – and going to the skin, and tattooing that way. Some of my best work is done that way.”

Whether it’s flash or custom designs, Doug gets them all in his studio. He does small symbols and huge canvas-like pieces. He is most impressed with those who do tribute tattoos: “Some people do it out of memory to honor somebody, or to mark or deal with a tragic thing in their life. I’ve tattooed people that have personal battles they deal with, and they picture-ize it in tattoos.” He’s less impressed with those who get tattoos in order to look cool, fit in, or instill fear in others. And he refuses to do anything that could be considered racist. “Whether it be pro or con. Me, personally, I don’t like to tattoo White Pride stuff, so I don’t feel like I should have to tattoo Black Pride, Brown Pride stuff. To me, it’s still the same. Even though they look at it, on the one side it’s racial and on the other side it’s culture, to me it’s the same. Anything racist, gang-related, motorcycle-club related, or even in just bad taste.” Bad taste? Such as what? “I had a guy that actually wanted me to tattoo Taz on him with blue balls, and I totally refused to do it. I just don’t want my work known for that.”

“Unfortunately,” Doug continues, “a lot of the people that want the racial stuff, the biker stuff, the gang-related stuff, have their own artists that they go to.” Still, Doug needs to stay on top of the gang symbols so he knows when to refuse them when asked. “I know a large percentage of the stuff. It’s really hard, ‘cause they change it all the time. Luckily, we’re not in an area where it’s such a big deal, but we still have to be familiar with some of the stuff. Like the Playboy bunny with the one ear bent down, you know, that’s the ‘Playboys’ sign here in Greeley. Which is kind of ridiculous because we tattoo a lot of the real Playboy bunnies, from the actual magazine Playboy…so it’s that kind of stuff.”

In addition to knowing a lot about the changing nature of local gang signs, Doug also knows a lot about the changing nature of tattoo history. “People now want to be more informed and they’re more interested. You see more and more tattoo specials on, anywhere from MTV, to the Discovery Channel, to National Geographic. They’re actually bringing in some of the history of tattooing. A lot of people don’t realize that when tattooing first evolved, it was the elite people, it was the aristocrats, that started doing it. From England, then they moved into the very rich, society people of America. Then people started traveling more, mostly in the Navy, brought it into the ports, and stuff like that.” As you can read about at the Tattoo Meanings history page, this is where a lot of negative stereotypes began to emerge.

Sadly, some of those stereotypes exist yet today and, ironically, Doug is occasionally the victim of them. By virtue of owning a business, Doug needs to mingle with other business and community leaders, some of whom do not respond well. Until then, Doug never felt awkward about his tattoos. “I never regretted them until about two, three years ago. Just for social standings, you know. I’m not in an area that has a lot of groups that are tattooed. As far as relationships dealing with people, some people look down on you. I found out most people in the professional matters, like a business owner, will treat you professional, but I do know as far as going out and interacting with the public, the general public, that they treat me different.”

But times are changing. “It’s amazing; we get a lot of daughters that bring their moms in. That guy with the body suit – he may be a banker, he may be a college professor.” Whoever you are, Doug concludes, “Do some research. Talk to some artists. Let them put their input in it, ‘cause 98% of the time I can change up a design, make it look better. And then it will be exactly what they want. And it will be artistic. And it will be their tattoo.”

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