We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jeremy Eikenberry. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jeremy below.

Hi Jeremy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I grew up listening to punk music and skateboarding, so tattoos were always in the background. I started getting tattooed when I was 17, just getting skateboard graphics and band logos and stuff. When I was probably 19 I started noticing different styles of tattoos and once I found the American traditional style of tattoos… that was it. I had always drawn, and been somewhat “artistic” and when I finally came across the medium of tattooing in the American traditional style, it all clicked. It was how I had seen things in my head, I just didn’t know the guidelines and building blocks of what made it so iconic. After that, the rest is history and I haven’t gone 15 minutes without thinking of tattooing in some way or another since.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My names Jeremy Eikenberry and I’m a tattooer from Grand Rapids, Michigan. I work at a shop called High Point Tattoo and it’s the best shop on the planet, second to none. I’ve been tattooing 8 years and offer many styles of tattooing, but I specialize in a folky version of the traditional Americana style. I got into the “industry” like most tattooers before my time, and that’s with getting an apprenticeship under an experienced tattooer. I found someone in my local area who I thought had the skills I could learn from, and who I could present myself as an asset to. I started hanging around, sweeping the shop, finding any reason to be at the tattoo shop until he decided to offer me an apprenticeship. I mopped the floors, talked to customers, took out the trash, set up stations, and scrubbed the toilet for about a year full time, unpaid, until he thought I was ready to start tattooing. After that just years of tattooing, experimenting, and soaking up experience from others around me to learn the craft of tattooing as best as possible. I also build tattoo machines by hand, for myself and others that I sell to professional tattooers. I was a metal fabricator before I tattooed, so I brought that knowledge and experience to making tattoo machines that I think separates me and elevates then above others. I’d say I stand in the corner of tattooing that’s a little more set in the “old school” way than what’s probably the “norm” nowadays. My first and main focus is tattoo application, rather than the “artistic” side of tattooing. While primarily focusing on the tattoo application, I pride myself in being fast, efficient, and detail/quality oriented. I do as many appointments as I can a day, as well as take walk ins as much as I can. I’ve learned a bag of tricks along the way that I can lean on, but like to tip toe on the edge of doing something new/different all the time so I don’t box myself in and am continuously evolving.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Best thing about being a tattooer at the end of the day is that my job is basically going to work and hanging out with 2 of my best friends. People think tattooing is getting to draw/tattoo fun stuff that I think is cool. In reality, a lot of the time it’s copy and paste or working out how to make someone’s good or stupid ideas work as a tattoo. Let’s get one thing straight, tattooing is a job. It’s how I pay my mortgage, and feed my family. It’s a customer service, so if you’re level headed I’m sure you can think of some of the drawbacks that come with that. That being said… a lot of the time I get to tattoo cool stuff, and meet some cool people, and work the craft I picked. So the most rewarding aspect in a nutshell, is my job is hanging out and shooting the breeze with my 2 best friends while we’re all sitting next to each other making tattoos on people.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

After about a year and a half of my apprenticeship, I moved from Muskegon, Mi where I started tattooing, and moved to Southern California to tattoo at a new shop. What I didn’t know, was the owner of the shop was an egotistical maniac who was running his business into the ground. On top of that, living in southern California is expensive, and business wasn’t so great, and it was hard making a living. I was getting ready to tuck tale and make the move back to Michigan after securing a job at any friends shop in Grand Rapids, and a little thing called covid happened. It ended up being perfect timing tho, and worked out for the best. About a year later, we decided to open our own shop and called it High Point Tattoo. So there’s been a lot of resets and pivots I’ve had to make, through different shops, states, and situations. But it’s all worked out for the best, and I don’t think I’d change any of it if I had the chance.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @jeremyeik