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

Mark , appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I had been in school in England and my family moved from Hong Kong to the US . I wanted to be an architect or designer .

I had been an artist my whole life but I really enjoyed design and architecture and was really focused on that for a career .

It wasn’t until I moved to the US I even knew about tattooing and took an Interest after taking my friend to get tattoos when we were 16 years old.

I spend more and more time at the shop Peter-Tat2 and became great friends with the artists there .
I was already a good artist and would draw tattoos for them daily .

Eventually i had a discussion with one of the artists about teaching me the art of tattooing .
Not long after that they took me on as an apprentice and I started my 37 years career .
This was in 1989 when tattooing wasn’t as common and acceded as it is today.
My apprenticeship was hard and it was a very old school type tattoo environment ..
I’m really proud of the way I learned and glad it was a traditional apprenticeship during a not so glamorous time of tattooing .

I think the way I learned and from who I learned molded me into the artist and studio owner I have been for 32 years and it set a standard for how to run a great tattoo shop.

Mark , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is mark walters I was born in England and raised in Hong Kong .

I have been an arts my whole life .
I was creating art from as young as I can remember .
My mother is a great artist as is my sister .

I started tattooing at 18 years old and have currently been tattooing for 37 years .

I specialize in large scale Japanese Asian inspired tattoos .

Growing up in Hong Kong I was exposed to so much Asian culture that I felt a strong connection right away when entering the tattooing industry .

I opened my studio Living canvas Tattoos Inc in Tempe Az in 1993 and am proud to say we are still growing after 32 years .

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I tried to open my studio in the city of Tempe az I was told no so many times for so many reason . The city had no tattoo shops and didn’t want any .
It is a college town and the main strip is called mill ave .
I wanted my studio to be right on the main strip on mill ave across from the college .

I found a building and applied to the city for a permit to open.
I was rejected for every imaginable reason.
They didn’t want “undesirables” in their neighborhood was the one I always laugh about .

I fought them for a year trying to argue every reason they gave me not to issue me the permit .

After a year of back and forth they did agreed to allow me a use permit BUT only with some serious regulations on it .
Those regulations are still in place today in the city of Tempe .
I was just too young to understand that the regulation would help me down the road .

The regulations ironically have also stopped any shops from opening too
close to my studio since there is a distance requirement for how far shops can be from one another ..

This has limited the amount of shops that have ultimately opened in Tempe as a whole , especially now during an oversaturated market .

We are still here 31 years later and over the years I have helped the City with many tattoo related issues .

I pride myself on my professionalism and my commitment to the highest level of tattooing which has led the city to change their views on tattooing .
I feel proud to have led them down that path.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think less creative people don’t understand the struggle of an artist mentally . They think these images just pop up in our heads and we can translate them so easily ..

My mind as an artist is moving and creating and that can stressful .
I want to focus on one item and one piece of art but I also want constantly changing it .
I may lay down a great design at one moment, then 10 minutes later I hate it and throw it away .
We are our biggest critics and it’s never good enough .

I think alot of artists struggle with anxiety to create , something people who aren’t creative don’t struggle with and wouldn’t understand .

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.livingcanvastattoos.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mdwtattoos?igsh=NmZhNHJuc21ta2J3&utm_source=qr