Artists at Texas Tattoos take pride in their work, rack up recent awards in multiple styles

Aug. 19—Over the last 60 years or so, tattoos have been enjoying a steady resurgence in American culture.

Before that, in recent centuries, many people in the Western world associated tattoos with the military or with people who lived "itinerant" lifestyles, like sailors or circus performers ... but actually, archeological evidence indicates that tattooing, piercing, and other forms of body art have, perhaps, been practiced for almost as long as humans have been creating art. A famous example of this is the 5,000-year-old natural mummy named Ötzi (often referred to as "The Ice Man"), who was found frozen in the Alps near the Austrian/Italian border in 1991 and had more than 60 tattoos on his body.

Now, as tattoos continue to resurge in popularity, much of the stigma attached to them in recent centuries has began to subside, so it's not uncommon, when taking trips to the grocery store, for people to cross paths with scores of others who are sporting visible "ink" — whether they be small, simple ankle tats or elaborate, arm-covering "sleeves."

In Greenville, there's a good chance that a decent fraction of the tattoos one might see on any given day are done at Texas Tattoos. Owned by Josh Painter, he and the handful of tattoo artists who work out of the studio pride themselves in being well versed in several different art styles from a myriad of cultures.

"I got my start in tattooing more than 20 years ago, when I went into the old Treasure Chest tattoo shop here in Greenville, where the owner, Shane Badd the Sea Hag, gave me my second tattoo. I've always been an artist — my last name is even Painter, I like to joke — so the two of us got to talking about art," Painter related. "She said, 'I like you. Would you like to be my apprentice and learn how to tattoo?'

"After that, Shane became 'my momma' in the tattooing business," he added with an affectionate chuckle. "She had a long, stellar career tattooing across the country, but she eventually couldn't continue with my apprenticeship due to health reasons, so I went to Tennessee for a while and finished with Larry deMoss, who's also a legend in the tattooing world.

"Now, my favorite styles to work in are traditional or vintage American and traditional Japanese, but when I first came back to Greenville, I was one of the few tattoo artists in Hunt County, so I was immediately tasked with learning all kinds of different tattooing styles — everything from traditional to photo realism — so I could give people what they wanted. It wasn't until many years later, when I could hire a larger staff, that I had the 'luxury' of having a focus," Painter said.

While Painter still does tattoos in more than 20 different styles, his affection for the bright colors and crisp designs of old school American-style tattooing recently paid off at an Ink Masters convention in Sulphur Springs last month, where he won the award for "best traditional tattoo" for a large chest piece depicting an owl that he made for Michael Donceel of Greenville.

"When Mike came in, he gave me a vague idea of what he was wanting for a chest tattoo, and I suggested a traditional American style tattoo of an owl, because it could be both visually bold and owls traditionally represent wisdom," Painter said. "When he decided he liked the idea, I drew it up and tattooed the outline of it in one go, then at the next session I shaded it, and at the third I did all the coloring, so the whole tattoo was done in three stages and probably took a total of about six hours."

As proud as Painter is with his award-winning piece, he's also happy to share the spotlight with the other artists on the Texas Tattoos team, who have their share of loyal customers and have also been receiving awards of their own.

Recent honorees at Texas Tattoos include Christie Garrison, who was judged as creating the "best neo-traditional tattoo" at the Sulphur Springs Ink Masters show, and Meggy Whynot, who won an award for "best Polynesian style tattoo" at the Tat2Mag Convention in Arlington.

"I love giving shoutouts to my fellow tattoo artists here, including Christie, Meggy and Doctor Smooth (Tommy Juarez), who have all be racking up multiple awards at various conventions," Painter said.

"But most of all, we love helping people express themselves in any way they like through tattooing or piercing," Painter said. "We want to be the studio that you pick to do your next tattoo."