tubes and a power supply. I tattooed a lot of
grapefruits and oranges before I finally received
an apprenticeship at Iron Mikes Tattoos in Truro,
Nova Scotia; it was here that I met Mike Leblanc.
Until then I had never seen work like his anywhere
except for magazines. After a great deal of floor
sweeping and tube cleaning, Mike finally agreed
to teach me the art behind tattooing.
I will never forget my first client! It was some
sort of Ying and Yang, angel/devil kind of thing.
My hands were trembling and I was sweating
through the whole thing. I quickly found out
tattooing was a lot harder than it looked.
I later opened my own shop, Silver City Tattoos,
in Elmsdale. I became well rounded to different
styles of tattooing due to client requests. At
“
matter to gain a better understanding of the
tattoo and to begin designing the working piece.
Sometimes if my client is open to it I will just free
hand a sketch on to the body and create the
details as I go such as Biomech or Japanese
influenced art. With more realistic subject matter
I like to have the art well prepared and enhanced
with Photoshop.
Achievements and tools from Sponsors
I have had the opportunity to travel all over
Canada and the United States to teach my
seminar, Back 2 Reality, based on my approach
to color realism. I also have a color realism DVD
out and plan to release a second one very soon.
Within the last two years I have worked hard on
my art to make an impression on this industry.
My hands were trembling and I was
sweating through the whole thing. I
quickly found out tattooing was a lot
harder than it looked.
first people sought me out for my larger black
and grey Japanese inspired work, which I still
enjoy doing today. I found myself really wanting
to expand from there, so I started to focus on
portraits and color realism. I began studying and
following the tattoo art of Tom Renshaw, Bob
Tyrrell, Guy Aitchison, Joe Capobianco, and Mike
Devries. My current style tends to focus around
color realism. I feel that I am always seeking to
learn new and different styles to keep my art
fresh and am humbled by the challenge. I am
really interested in expanding my knowledge of
all styles but recently I have been focusing a lot
on animation or cartooning style. Tony Ciavarro
and Jime Litwalk are a huge influence. I want
to merge the painterly realism with some bold
outer lines and exaggerated features - sort of a
neo-realism if you will. I found something I can
do day in and day out and am just as excited
now as my first day on the job. I do not see
myself doing anything else. This is where I am
supposed to be!
”
I have landed features in publications and great
magazine, such as this one, all across the world.
I feel blessed to have become part of the team at
Neo Tat Machines where Ray Webb designs their
amazing linear rotaries. I started using rotaries
about 4 years ago and found they were so much
smoother for packing color and allowed for more
passes in the skin. This is great when doing a
color portrait with lots of detail. Also I have had
the great honor of teaming up with my ink line
of choice StarBrite, from the makers at Tommy’s
Supplies. I find these inks saturate extremely well
and heal with great vibrancy. I have also had the
opportunity to work with them to formulate my
own color set which is named the Kirt Silver series.
My needles of choice come from a company that
has shown me great support throughout my
career, World Wide Tattoo Supply.
I want to thank my wife Amy & son Disiah for
all their support and love. My parents who have
always encouraged my art. Mike LeBlanc for the
opportunity to learn the art of tattoo. My clients
Day to day
who inspire and support me and to God for all he
I make it a point to meet with all my clients has seen me through.
personally to consult about their tattoo. Most
clients have an idea of what they want their
tattoo to represent or of the elements they want
to be included. Most clients have been referred
by friends and trust me to use my creativity and
experience to shape their design. I always keep
in mind the client’s desire for the best tattoo,
so as I approach the design I will interview my
clients to make note of certain features wanted.
From there I will research the style and subject
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