tattoos by sketch RYAN "SKETCH" MARTIN

Personal Portfolio

My not so short Biography: Its my life

foward: Somewhere in the early 90's.

I started really trying to draw when my parents divorced, doing easy thing , knives, guns , bleeding stick figures and tracing my hand with daggers through it. Most things were bloody, probably because me and the neighbor kid, Zack, were into Friday the 13th.

Over some time ,in middle school, I would try and recreate drawing I had seen friends do. Kind of caricature looking. Then I took on a style of tracing my coloring pictures outlines first before coloring them, that my step Grandma would do. Looked pretty good, who knew I would be doing that the rest of my life on skin.

I thought I was going to be an actor, maybe the next Jim Carrey. I was goofy but not a comedian for sure. I did modeling tryouts, and picked to go to other things but my family didn't have the money for all that. By this time I was already being fairly rebel-ish.

By 11 I was already in with the bad crowd. Most were 5 years or more older than me, so I tried growing up way to fast and experimenting with things no 11 year old should ever do.

At 16 my Dad, Thomas Collins took me to get my first tattoo. After that dad was like , man you could do this. I didn't put to much thought in it. I tried it a few times when I was 18 ,having a couple people show me a couple things. Then my unwanted vacation came. That's one thing I knew I did not want to do ever again. Time to switch things up. Coming home and switching up things in my life to make it better.

Mom , Dad, and some of the others pitched in and grabbed me a tattoo kit. I china kit of course but it worked great. Sitting in my room that, turned into a tattoo room most of the time ( I do not suggest), I realized this was what I wanted to do. So I went to look for an apprenticeship. That didn't go as I planned at all. I tried a couple places and they weren't

interested at the time. But one shop owner gave me a suggestion to go over to a shop called Eastside, not far from my house, that he was sure the owner would help me out. Well he sure did. The owner, Gary Davidson, took a look at my art portfolio and the tattoos I had done, while teaching myself at home, and said I didn't need an apprenticeship I was good enough to start working. Of course I didn't expect that at all and was super grateful. I started a bond with each person in the shop and really picked the brains and watched the one who was really good in my eyes. For me watching is everything. You can tell me how to do something a million times and I won't retain it, but show me and I'm all in.

It has been one hell of a task getting to where I am now. The years of working noon to midnight or later. Sitting for 12 hours not doing one tattoo. Sitting for days not doing one tattoo, or piercing for that matter. Everyone at the Eastside tattoo shop was to know how to pierce as well as tattoo, so that was interesting. I stopped doing piercings after teaching my piercing apprentice at Altered Image somewhere around 2014 or 15. I decided it was taking up to much of my tattoo time with clients, as I had to break multiple time in a session to pierce others. Now I only focus on my tattoos not realizing piercing was holding me so far back.

After putting in all the hard work and time over these years and making all my GOALs become reality, I can finally relax a little. Now working by appointment only, and creating more of a family life, I feel as if I have really made it. I can not wait to see where my future in the tattoo industry goes next and where my new goals are going to take me. This is the life i am meant to live and its all thanks to everyone who has believed in me and my work.

I thank you all!

I always knew I was going to be an artist, I just didn't know what kind.

Growing up I loved going and staying with my Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma was an artist and Grandpa was an all around handy man and volunteer fireman in the small town of Mooreland, Indiana.

They had a little bit of property that I loved to run on. Every once in a while id get Grandpa to let me drive the tractor up and down the road. Popping wheelies of course as I popped the clutch. I'd always get busted for that when they noticed the dips in their new chip and seal road from the quick pulse of the back wheels turn , to pull the front up. But it was Grandmas talent of painting that I really loved. I think we only started one painting as she taught me a few things with oil paint. Outside that , seeing what she could do with a brush was amazing to me and i wanted to be able to do it one day.