American Traditional
Bold lines, a tight palette and subjects that have held up for a hundred years: daggers, roses, panthers, ships and sacred hearts. Every piece here was tattooed by me at The Custom Tattoo Company in Havelock, NC.
I grew up in my dad’s shop, and American Traditional was the first tattooing I ever knew. The rules are simple and they are there for a reason: a heavy black outline, a few solid colors, and a design you can read from across the room. Tattoos built that way still look like themselves twenty years later.
A lot of what you see here comes straight from the classic flash vocabulary. Daggers through hearts and skulls, roses with banners, panther heads, devils, sacred hearts, a Death Before Dishonor piece and a Mom and Dad heart with an arrow through it. Being a shop this close to the bases and the coast, nautical work comes through the door constantly: sailing ships, sharks, a hammerhead wrapped around an anchor, a marlin and a diver’s helmet.
Traditional doesn’t have to be serious, though. Some of my favorites in this gallery are a cat getting abducted by a UFO, a skunk holding flowers, an axolotl and a bulldog with butterfly wings. Same bold line and the same tight palette, just more fun. A few pieces here are black and grey with dot shading, which is where my traditional work meets my dotwork and fineline.
Traditional sits best where it has room to breathe: forearms, calves, thighs and the upper arm. Walk-ins are welcome at the shop for flash off the wall. For something custom, send a tattoo request with your idea, placement and size, and check the pricing guide for ranges.