About Tobias |Brisbane Custom Tattoo Artist

I started my tattoo journey when I was 14. I was always interested in art, but one day I found a tattoo design magazine. I would take it with me everywhere, re-drawing dragons, skulls, flowers and blades at school, on the bus and after my weekend jobs. My dad had recently been released from a 5 year stint in prison. He saw a lot of tattoos while in prison and shared my new found interest, so for my 15th birthday he bought me a tattoo machine from eBay and let me practise all I wanted on him.

It's funny because I haven't tattooed him since, I think 15 year old me tattooing with absolutely no idea what I was doing turned him off tattoos after that.

Unfortunately though we grew up surviving day to day and it wasn't until I was 23 that I was financially stable enough to start an un-paid apprenticeship. At the time I was working a 9-5 office job at a software startup. I was able to negotiate a new contract where I dropped from 38 hours a week to 30, giving me 1 day off.

I would then work 4 days at the office and 3 days at the studio, some days also going straight from work to the studio for the days the studio shut at 9pm.

I did this for almost 2 years, and in 2019 I was ready to move fulltime into tattooing and start my career.

I was lucky enough to have been taken on by Bernie, the owner of Wild at Hear Tattoo, a true old school tattooer that just cared about doing good tattoos and making the client happy. I learnt a lot from him and he helped transition me into supporting myself as an independent artist.

In 2021, I was then beyond lucky to be offered a space at Save Point Tattoo, owned and operated by local and abroad legend Dale Winter.

I had been getting tattooed by Dale since 2012, he was my biggest inspiration in the industry and now now I am lucky enough to call him a personal friend. Dale has taught me to stay authentic in my art, treating tattooing as a manifestation of my creative identity.

Over the years I have had many different interests, I started art doing realism, then transitioned to more stylised, illustrative art, though I do get bored easily and love constantly mixing things up.

With tattooing however, my approach has remained consistent. I believe to make a tattoo look great you need 3 things.

1. Contrast

   • Lighting is only bright when compared to complete shadow.

2. Blending

   • Smooth gradient blends compliment the flow of the body and provide contrast to areas of texture.

3. Open Skin

   • Using skin to portray tonnes and highlights allows tattoos to look more natural on the body, as opposed to looking like a solid sticker.