Unfortunately, it’s taken me this long to getting around to talking about Mike Devries. A while back I mentioned him and even linked to his site in this post, when I was talking about the do’s and don’ts of operating your own website as a tattooist. Well, aside from having a picture perfect website, Mike Devries also does picture perfect work. There aren’t too many artists whose websites that I would repeatedly plug on the Tattoo Blog. Not because I don’t think there are enough good artists out there, but rather because there are so many great artists working that I want to get to as many of them as I can.
All that being said, Mike Devries certainly deserves the attention. His colour realism tattoo work kicks the crap out of me. I mean it. This stuff just destroys me every time that I look at it. I can hardly believe that his work can be so clean and clear and just plain alive. His fascination with tattoos began at age 16 after receiving his very first tattoo. For a while however, it didn’t seem as though Devries would pursue tattooing as a career. Although he was repeatedly drawn back to various tattoo studios to get work done and although he maintained a fascination with the art form, it was construction work that put food on his table.
Things stayed this way until 2003. While being tattooed by his friend Jim Hayek, Devries managed to land an apprenticeship in exchange for some construction work. And so began the tattoo career of Mike Devries. By 2008 after working at Art Junkies Tattoo in Hesperia, California, Devries opened up MD Tattoo in Northridge, California, where he’s been ever since.
I know that every time I do an artist profile, I say how amazing the chosen tattooist’s work is. Well, all of that is always true. I honestly respect and enjoy the work of the artists that I profile. But there are a few artists who come along once in a while that I can’t help but think of as being on a totally different level artistically. Mike Devries is certainly one of them. No sane person can deny that what they see in Mike’s work is anything short of perfection. Stylistically, he’s truly one of a kind and understandably deserving of the praise he continues to receive worldwide.
I must have him tattoo me.