Sub-Urban ink in a small town

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

By Henry Sweets

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Not all Jackson art collectors hang paintings on their walls or display sculptures in their garden. A growing group of valley residents say they are walking displays of fine art.

Jeff Brown has been collecting tattoos since he was 13 years old. Brown, a photographer and youth manager that splits his time between Jackson and Hawaii, has a passion for Japanese, Polynesian and ‘early Americana’ tattoo art. His collection is evenly distributed across his body.

“You’re hoping you never run out of room,” he said.
Until recently, Jacksonites like Brown had to travel to bigger cities like Idaho Falls, Idaho, or Salt Lake City to get their ink done right.

Not any more, said Suzi Woodward, the owner of Sub-Urban Body Art and Mountunes. The music store hired a full-time tattoo artist two years ago and since then the ink shop has been making a name for itself.

“We don’t want to be the kind of shop that has a lot of flash up on the wall,” Woodward said of the evolving tattoo parlor that has been expanding since its 2006 inception.
 “We want it to be a custom art shop, and in order to do that it takes really talented artists.”

Instead of picking a standard design from a book, or pointing to an image on the wall, customers work with the shop’s resident artist to develop their ideas to create original tattoos.

“Some people have their own designs, and some leave it up to me,” said Crissy Waters, Suburban Body Art’s resident tattoo artist. “And if someone picks something out of the book, I try to change it so they have something original … or try to talk them into it, at least.”

Waters said she has “always been an artist.” But in the past she worked with acrylic paints and canvas, not ink and skin.
Her brother, Mike Zimmer, is a tattoo artist in Carson City, Nev. Over the years, Waters has been a sort of apprentice to Zimmer, learning tattooing methods and sanitation practices from him.

At the same time, Waters’ painting style shifted from acrylic dry brushing and black and white realism to abstract pieces with bold color, she said, and the artistic style shift made an easy transition into body art.

Her first piece of body art was a Hawaiian fishhook tattooed on her husband. She then began practicing on a synthetic product that mimics skin. Her next customer was a friend who volunteered his skin for Water’s custom designed aspen leaves.
When she started at Sub-Urban Body Art in June of 2007, Waters did mainly small tattoos and often worked for free. A month later, Waters, who was working at Pearl Street Bagels, was doing four or five tattoos a day.

“All of the sudden, I’m the only tattoo artist in town, and I’m booked two weeks out,” Waters said. “It’s definitely progressing my art tremendously. It’s making me draw a lot more. I’m learning something on every piece of art I do.”
Waters’ work has also attracted walk-ins. Andrew and Bethany Thomason, who recently moved to Jackson, were walking around the Town Square last Thursday afternoon when they decided to ask Waters about a tattoo Andrew had been talking about for some time.

Thomason wanted his son’s full name, Jayden Andrew Thomason, tattooed on the back of his neck.
“I don’t know if it hurts - tattoos on your neck - I guess I’ll find out,” he said, as his eight-month-old son stood by to watch.

Although Waters said she is usually too busy for walk-ins, she started from scratch and drew a design in freehand for Thomason’s tattoo. She made sure to space it evenly on Thomason’s neck. She then used thermal transfer paper to create a purple stencil of the tattoo design on his skin.

Waters works with 10 base colors, which she can mix to make just about any color a customer wants, she said.
Thomason chose black and dark blue.

Waters dipped her tattoo needle in the ink color and began the process of tracing the vibrating needle, which contains several small needles on the tip, over the stencil.
As she worked, the needles drew small bits of blood, which Waters wiped away with a paper towel as she slowly made progress along the outline of the design on Thomason’s neck. Thomason didn’t seem bothered by the pain as he played video pool on his cell phone, and his wife entertained Jayden nearby.

“Jayden was brand new when he first laid on this couch,” she said, talking about the blue loveseat in Waters’ studio.
Bethany Thomason received her first tattoo, a moon, from Waters this past summer when Jayden was just a few weeks old.

“I just love moons and stars and mystical kinds of stuff,” Bethany said. She’s already planning her next tattoo, she said. A hummingbird, done by Waters.

Photo by andrew wyatt
Crissy Waters tattoos Andrew Thomason.

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Sub-Urban ink in a small town | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

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