Tattoos as Grounding Work -- Recent Pieces with a Sense of Place

There is an inherent magic to the semi-permanence of tattoo as a medium. Honoring the places we love via tattoo can be a powerful grounding ritual, reminding us always of the connection we have to the land that supports us, the soil that feeds our bodies, the air that fills our lungs. During the ample alone time of the past year, I’ve done a lot of reflecting on my practice: what am I’m putting out into the world and why?

Ultimately, my objective as an artist falls somewhere at the intersection of activism, rewilding, and healing. If art can be used to connect people to the places we inhabit, then it can help folks feel held by and connected to the vast myriad of other species that we as humans inextricably interact with. If we can revitalize our inherent connection to the land, we’ll grow passionate about our roles as stewards thereof, and build a life that honors and nourishes it. If we are to have any hope of conquering climate change, it must start with raw, instinctual, animalistic passion for the earth we inhabit. We are biological creatures; the products of countless millennia of evolution aligning us with other species in an intricate, complex, beautiful web of interconnected life. The futures of all life forms on the planet are in our hands, and we exist at a pivotal moment in history.

“No one will protect what they don't care about; and no one will care about what they have never experiened”

―David Attenborough

Tattoos can be a part of that experience for the artist, the wearer, and those they choose to share their piece’s story with. While art cannot singlehandedly solve climate change, it CAN play a part in the collective identity shift necessary to tackle it. And that’s a pretty sweet motivation to do one’s thing.

All of my work contains this intention; the below pieces are just a few recent examples with very clear connections to places near and dear to the client.

Western peony (paeonia brownii) for longtime client, badass explorer of the high desert, and parent to adorable Scottie dogs, M

Texas bluebonnet and Oregon grape for B’s first tattoo! They earn major badass points for sitting through this spicy elbow placement for their first rodeo.

Blue and gold macaw, celebrating A’s Brazilian roots. Two sessions, several mighty spicy spots. Always an honor to tattoo a fellow tattooer!

The Rookery 2020

Portland’s Winter Crow Roost

Ever wonder what’s up with the studio name, The Rookery PDX? You can thank these dark-winged winter residents.

Each winter (roughly November-February), tens of thousands of crows migrate into PDX for the winter and gather at night in densely-packed roosts downtown.

Every day, just before dusk, the birds gather in the trees outside the studio windows to caw and squawk about the corvid goings-on before flying downtown as a group at nightfall. For about half an hour at dusk, they encircle us : some preening, some cawing, some feasting on treasures gleaned from nearby restaurants. Some even enjoy getting close to the window for a photoshoot.

Getting to end the short winter days with them is one of my favorite parts about this beloved studio. The roost is a fairly recent phenomenon (first documented in 2013), but is every bit as amazing as the celebrated Vaux Swifts. Check them out flying into downtown any winter evening, and if you have a winter appointment here, expect it to end with ample dark wings. Not so much with the dark words, let’s hope.

To learn more about the roost, check out:

• PDX Crow Roost: a citizen science team dedicated to documenting + advocating for our avian urban wildlife.

• The controversial hazing initiative intended to break up the downtown roost

• Portland Audubon’s take on how to safely life with urban wildlife

• Ways to support your local roost