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MAD MIKE
Insane, crazy or just plain pissed!
by John Dekkers
Photos courtesy of Mad Mike
From the July 2003 issue of Prick Magazine.
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Traveling back and fourth across the interstates and
long stretches of highways, I journey across the rivers
of concrete to bring this wonderful magazine to
everyone. Along the way, I meet an array of good tattoo
artists. Some of these artists are well-known, others are on
the way up and are diamonds in the rough some might say.
I had the pleasure of meeting one of these aspiring artists
as I made my distribution rounds in St. Petersburg, Fla. He
is an artist who goes by the name of Mad Mike and has
creepy garbage pale kid-style art on his business card. I
asked him why he was so "mad." "I figured I needed a
good gimmick," Mike explains, "like wrestling, but I can’t
wear a Luchedore mask and tattoo."
Mike was born in Atlanta and grew up in West Palm
Beach, Fla. before moving to Tallahassee to attend FSU in
'95, where he was majoring in art before dropping out of
school to tattoo. "I was constantly hanging out at Euphoria
Tattoos, getting a backpeice done. I begged the owner of the
shop, Alain Rodgers, for an apprenticeship and finally convinced
him." Mike has had the opportunity to work in some
really cool shops during his ongoing tattoo career including,
AAA Tattoos in Lafayette, LA, Eye Candy Tattoos in New
Orleans, LA, Exo Graphix in Destin, Fla., Shiva's Pain in
Tampa,Fla. and Tattoo Emporium in St.Pete, Fla., where I met
Mike. "I really owe a lot to all these shops for helping me out
along the way," Mike adds.
I asked Mike if he had a particular style of tattoo he
preferred to do and why. "I wouldn't know how to classify
my work," says Mike, "I enjoy
doing all different styles,
although, the majority of what
I do is in color. I really don’t
care to mimic any style. I
would just like to continue developing my own [style] and
take it as far as I possibly can."
Mike has a collection of tattoos himself by such artists
as Randy Muller, Joe Capobianco, Jime Litwalk, Tony Olivas, Joey
Hamilton, Eric Merrill, Mike Cole, Don Davis, Jeremy Justice,
Mark C. Merchant, Tim Creed and Alain Rodgers (who got
Mad Mike into the biz, among many others).
When asked if there is a learning process in getting
tattooed by an artist you look up to, and if he only get tattooed by artists he could learn
from, Mike replied: "I definitely
think that you can learn by getting
tattooed by anyone. No matter
how far you’ve progressed as an
artist, you have to keep getting
new ideas, keep changing, otherwise
you become stagnant. There
is always more to learn. I guess I
do get tattooed by people I can
learn from. It’s been great getting
to meet different people and get
new ideas. It’s really helped me
progress as an artist. I’m very
thankful for all the opportunities."
Some other artists that
Mike admires are Guy Aitchison,
Grime, Aaron Cain, Gunnar, Tony
Civarro and Will Lollie, to name a
few on his long list of tattoo
artists. He is also a big fan of Mark
Ryden, H.R. Giger, Salvador Dali
and countless other artists in the
non-tattoo world.
Mad Mike is currently guest spotting at some of the aforementioned shops in
Florida and Louisiana. You can see more of Mad Mike's artwork and find out where he
will be to set up an appointment with him at www.miketattoo.com on that thing
called the Internet.
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