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After checking out his work, most people are shocked to hear that Russ Abbott has only been
tattooing for about three years. His work shows the kind of quality and innovation you would expect to see from a more seasoned artist with three times his experience. Currently a tattooer at Liquid Skin Tattoo in Lawrenceville, GA, Russ started tattooing after a brief attempt at studying graphic design in college.
"I was 18 when I got my first tattoo and I was actually doing them at 19", says Russ. "I really didn’t truly harness my artistic abilities until I started tattooing. Tattooing everyday is the best art education I could ever get."
Drawing influences from artwork of diverse cultures, as well as the work of other tattooers, Russ enjoys incorporating those different kinds of influences from various artistic backgrounds into his tattoo style. "My tastes in tattoos continually evolve. I went from doing mostly revved up traditional stuff to doing realistic portraits," says Russ. "I don’t have a preference between black and gray or color tats, or any particular style. I enjoy them all."
Whatever kind of tattoo his clients want, Russ knows how to work with them to bring out the best of their ideas and put his own artistic spin on it. "It’s fun to do all styles of tattooing, especially when the client has an open mind. I like to take a fuzzy idea someone has or a picture someone is explaining to me that they want a tattoo of and creating what they see in their heads," he says.
In the future,Russ hopes to "get more of those clients with open minds and cool ideas, and maybe get off my ass, draw some flash, and learn to paint." For a guy who is not even old enough for his first big car insurance break, Russ is off to a pretty good start in the tattoo business.
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