Chatting Up With Animal Tattoo Expert Mack Thompson
After slightly more than half-a-dozen years in the business, Mack Thompson came to fan attention when he brought life to dozens of animal tattoos. We started this chat by discussing his background and training.
Me: Where do you come from?
Mack Thompson: I’ve lived in Boston all my life. I was born in July 20, 1987 in the Massachusetts area and been here ever since.
Me: Have you had any formal tattoo art training?
Mack Thompson: Not really. I’ve had very little – mostly I’ve met people who are tattoo artists and sat in with them while they were inking their customers. I was fortunate enough to meet a couple of nice tattooists who would let me sit in on while they worked. But I’m pretty much self-taught…the most famous old self-taught rule of picking up how-to tattoo books and video tutorials and just learn from there and from life. I spent countless hours practicing my inking techniques on things like fruits and sheets of fake skins. Basically, I’m very self-driven.
Me: How did you move over to your current workplace and pick up on creating loads of animal tattoos?
Mack Thompson: I was working at this really small tattoo shop for a few years straight – three or four years – not on just animal tattoos, but all sorts of things like letterings, skulls, figures, portraits etc. I was working steadily; never had a time when I didn’t have work.
Finally, I guess they figured my work was coming up to snuff and my current employer was looking for a new person to create detailed, realistic animal tattoos. All the big names were either doing freelance tattoo work or hired by big tattoo parlors. I kind of lucked out.
Me: What was your working method like on creating the ‘Animals of Tropical Rainforest Tattoos’ with Kirk Ramon?
Mack Thompson: Mostly he drew the pencil drawing concepts and I made the tattoos. We spoke very little about concepts and ideas. We always talked about talking about it and never seemed to get around to it. Things were always moving so fast that, by the time we were ready to talk about tattoo design number seven, we were already working on design number eight.
I’m not doing the Animals of Tropical Rainforest Tattoos, anymore, of course. But Kirk would do a concept, give it to Frank Gibson, who would edit it (whatever that means), and he would pass it on to me.
Me: What are you working on now?
Mack Thompson: I’m working on a series of tattoo designs featuring amphibian animals with Seamus Jackson; he created the concept art and I’m doing the tattoos with as much detail as possible.
Me: That’s the one inspired by the “Amphibian” book by Barry Clarke?
Mack Thompson: Yep.
Me: How does it feel to produce tattoos based on amphibian animals like the salamanders, something with colorful hides?
Mack Thompson: I like creating salamander tattoos. Like all animal tattoo artists, I have favorites – while doing the Animals of Tropical Rainforest series, it’s always been the biggies with furry hides: Sun bear, wallaby, baboon. The amphibian animal series, it’s the tiger salamander, fire salamander, red-eyed tree frog, the eye-pleasing reedfrog.
Any of the well-known animal, the old tried-and-trues, you’re always eager to try your hands at.
Me: When and where did you develop your interest in tattooing?
Mack Thompson: In senior high, I met my friend Tim Dylan, I used to doodle a lot and he would show me tattoo art. That sparked the idea.
What really did it for me was looking at certain artists’ work. I remember looking at Annette LaRue’s’s work; I remember looking at early Paul Booth black-and-white tattoos with their incredible detail. That’s when I realized what you can really do. “Hey, this could be a fun way to make a living!” Until the customer yells at you and wants to hang you for being so slow!
All and all it’s a good life, if you don’t take it too seriously. If you take too seriously, like anything else, you limit yourself.
Me: On one level, you have to have the motto, “It’s just tattoos.”
Mack Thompson: Exactly. I always say that.
I remember talking to a friend in the business and he asked if I really believe that. “I can take this industry or leave it,” I told him. I don’t mean that in any negative sense; it’s just that I have had so many different types of jobs before I drew tattoos that, for me, the concept of work is more important.
You have to make a living. As long as you’re working and supporting yourself, you’re doing all right. I think that the person is more important than what he does; what you do can help develop you as a person, but it’s not everything you are.
I’m a creative person, so are all tattoo artists. What makes them different – not necessarily special – is that they need an outlet for their creativity, in much the same way an athlete needs to play his sport, for example.
That’s what makes tattooing fun for me: I’m killing two birds with one stone. I’m working, I’m earning my living and I’m getting a creative release.
Me: Where do you come from?
Mack Thompson: I’ve lived in Boston all my life. I was born in July 20, 1987 in the Massachusetts area and been here ever since.
Me: Have you had any formal tattoo art training?
Mack Thompson: Not really. I’ve had very little – mostly I’ve met people who are tattoo artists and sat in with them while they were inking their customers. I was fortunate enough to meet a couple of nice tattooists who would let me sit in on while they worked. But I’m pretty much self-taught…the most famous old self-taught rule of picking up how-to tattoo books and video tutorials and just learn from there and from life. I spent countless hours practicing my inking techniques on things like fruits and sheets of fake skins. Basically, I’m very self-driven.
Me: How did you move over to your current workplace and pick up on creating loads of animal tattoos?
Mack Thompson: I was working at this really small tattoo shop for a few years straight – three or four years – not on just animal tattoos, but all sorts of things like letterings, skulls, figures, portraits etc. I was working steadily; never had a time when I didn’t have work.
Finally, I guess they figured my work was coming up to snuff and my current employer was looking for a new person to create detailed, realistic animal tattoos. All the big names were either doing freelance tattoo work or hired by big tattoo parlors. I kind of lucked out.
Me: What was your working method like on creating the ‘Animals of Tropical Rainforest Tattoos’ with Kirk Ramon?
Mack Thompson: Mostly he drew the pencil drawing concepts and I made the tattoos. We spoke very little about concepts and ideas. We always talked about talking about it and never seemed to get around to it. Things were always moving so fast that, by the time we were ready to talk about tattoo design number seven, we were already working on design number eight.
I’m not doing the Animals of Tropical Rainforest Tattoos, anymore, of course. But Kirk would do a concept, give it to Frank Gibson, who would edit it (whatever that means), and he would pass it on to me.
Me: What are you working on now?
Mack Thompson: I’m working on a series of tattoo designs featuring amphibian animals with Seamus Jackson; he created the concept art and I’m doing the tattoos with as much detail as possible.
Me: That’s the one inspired by the “Amphibian” book by Barry Clarke?
Mack Thompson: Yep.
Me: How does it feel to produce tattoos based on amphibian animals like the salamanders, something with colorful hides?
Mack Thompson: I like creating salamander tattoos. Like all animal tattoo artists, I have favorites – while doing the Animals of Tropical Rainforest series, it’s always been the biggies with furry hides: Sun bear, wallaby, baboon. The amphibian animal series, it’s the tiger salamander, fire salamander, red-eyed tree frog, the eye-pleasing reedfrog.
Any of the well-known animal, the old tried-and-trues, you’re always eager to try your hands at.
Me: When and where did you develop your interest in tattooing?
Mack Thompson: In senior high, I met my friend Tim Dylan, I used to doodle a lot and he would show me tattoo art. That sparked the idea.
What really did it for me was looking at certain artists’ work. I remember looking at Annette LaRue’s’s work; I remember looking at early Paul Booth black-and-white tattoos with their incredible detail. That’s when I realized what you can really do. “Hey, this could be a fun way to make a living!” Until the customer yells at you and wants to hang you for being so slow!
All and all it’s a good life, if you don’t take it too seriously. If you take too seriously, like anything else, you limit yourself.
Me: On one level, you have to have the motto, “It’s just tattoos.”
Mack Thompson: Exactly. I always say that.
I remember talking to a friend in the business and he asked if I really believe that. “I can take this industry or leave it,” I told him. I don’t mean that in any negative sense; it’s just that I have had so many different types of jobs before I drew tattoos that, for me, the concept of work is more important.
You have to make a living. As long as you’re working and supporting yourself, you’re doing all right. I think that the person is more important than what he does; what you do can help develop you as a person, but it’s not everything you are.
I’m a creative person, so are all tattoo artists. What makes them different – not necessarily special – is that they need an outlet for their creativity, in much the same way an athlete needs to play his sport, for example.
That’s what makes tattooing fun for me: I’m killing two birds with one stone. I’m working, I’m earning my living and I’m getting a creative release.